TAMC’s Fort Fairfield-based
diabetes education program
gains ADA recognition
PRESQUE ISLE — The prestigious American Diabetes Association Education Recognition Certificate for a quality diabetes self-management education program was recently awarded to TAMC. The recognition acknowledges ADA’s affirmation that TAMC’s program offers high-quality education that is an essential component of effective diabetes treatment.
Photo courtesy of TAMC
TAMC’S RACHEL CHARETTE, BSN, RN and diabetic nurse educator, left, and Mary Coffin, family nurse practitioner and certified diabetes educator, look over correspondence from the American Diabetes Association at their office at the Fort Fairfield Health Center. The organization recently awarded TAMC with an Education Recognition Certificate for a quality diabetes self-management education program.
“We are very fortunate to have an interactive, collaborative, ongoing program involving individuals who have diabetes and diabetes educators,” said Rachel Charette, BSN, RN and diabetic nurse educator for TAMC. Charette went on to define diabetes educators as “educated health care professionals including registered nurses and registered dietitians.” She, along with Mary Coffin, family nurse practitioner and certified diabetes educator for TAMC, are based out of TAMC’s Fort Fairfield Health Center.
The ADA Education Recognition effort is a voluntary process which assures that approved education programs have met the national standards for Diabetes Self-Manage Education Programs. The standards were developed and tested under the auspices of the National Diabetes Advisory Board in 1983 and were revised by the diabetes community in 1994, 2000 and 2007. Programs that achieve recognition status have a staff of knowledgeable health professionals who can provide state-of-the-art information about diabetes management for participants.
“Diabetes education has been a long-standing program at TAMC and the continuing ADA recognition shows a significant commitment by TAMC to people with diabetes and their family members in the Aroostook County area,” said Coffin. “Diabetes education is the key to allowing persons with diabetes to live a healthier life.”
Self-management education is an essential component of diabetes treatment. According to the American Diabetes Association, there are 25.8 million people (8.5 percent of the population) who have diabetes, and 7 million of those individuals are unaware and undiagnosed. Each day approximately 5,205 people are diagnosed with diabetes. Many will first learn that they have the disease when they are treated for one of its life-threatening complications — heart disease and stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and nerve disease and amputation.
Nearly 2 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in people aged 20 years or older in 2010 in the United States. The disease contributed to 231,404 total deaths in 2007 alone in the United States, making it the seventh leading cause of death in the country. Overall, the risk of death among people with diabetes is twice that of people of similar age without the disease.
“The better control of blood sugars the person with diabetes has, the lower the risk of complications,” said Coffin. “As a community, we are fortunate to have the diabetes education program here in Fort Fairfield and available to patients throughout The County. The close coordination between Rachel and I allows for improved care and delivery of specific educational needs to the person with diabetes.”
Participants in the DSMT program are taught self-care skills that promote better management of a diabetes treatment regimen. All approved education programs cover the following topics as needed: diabetes disease process; nutritional management; physical activity; medication monitoring; preventing, detecting and treating acute complications; preventing, detecting and treating chronic complications through risk reduction; goal setting and problem solving; psychological adjustment; and preconception care, management during pregnancy, and gestational management.
For more information on TAMC’s diabetes self-management education program, contact Charette at 768-4753.
