The CCH Diabetes Self-Management Education Program is dedicated to helping you gain a better understanding of diabetes and its related conditions and be a resource for new medications and technologies that are now available. The focus of the program is to help you take control of your disease by providing you with the skills and support necessary to live a happier, healthier life. 

For more information about our Diabetes Education Program, contact our Coordinator of Diabetes Services at 920-623-1244 or 800-549-7511.
                 
 

For more Information on Diabetes, download our Diabetes Education Service Brochure

Diabetes Self-Management Education  

Whether you’ve been recently diagnosed or have had diabetes for many years, we can help you create an individualized plan to successfully self-manage the disease and its related conditions to help put you in control.

Our Certified Diabetes Educator will work with you and your family to help create a customized diabetes self-management plan that meets your needs based on your individual needs.   You will attend Diabetes Self-Management Education and Medical Nutrition Therapy sessions where you will receive the latest information on:

• Facts about diabetes and its effect on your body
• Meal planning
• How and when to monitor blood sugar at home
• Diabetes medications
• Physical activity
• Stress and coping
• Sick day care
• Problem solving
• Preventing long-term complications
• Setting personal health goals
• Developing a personal self-management plan

We’d like to encourage you to bring family members and loved ones to participate in our program with you.  Family involvement increases success in following your self-management plan. 

Statistics

Data from 2011 shows that nearly 26 million people across the United States are affected by diabetes, many of whom do not know they have diabetes.  Diabetes affects nearly 420,000 adults in Wisconsin. In addition, 6,000 children and adolescents in Wisconsin have diabetes. The CDC recently reported that as many as 1 in 3 adults could have diabetes by 2050. 

Only 18.8 million people are diagnosed with diabetes, leaving 7 million people undiagnosed.  In addition, 79 million people in the United States have prediabetes.  Prediabetes is a condition in which individuals have blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes. People with prediabetes have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

Major Types of Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes was previously called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) or juvenile-onset diabetes. Type 1 diabetes develops when the body's immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make the hormone insulin that regulates blood glucose. To survive, people with type 1 diabetes must have insulin delivered by injection or a pump. This form of diabetes usually strikes children and young adults, although disease onset can occur at any age. Type 1 diabetes accounts for about 5% to 10% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. Risk factors for type 1 diabetes may be autoimmune, genetic, or environmental. There is no known way to prevent type 1 diabetes. Several clinical trials for preventing type 1 diabetes are currently in progress or are being planned.

Type 2 diabetes was previously called non–insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) or adult-onset diabetes. Type 2 diabetes accounts for about 90% to 95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. It usually begins as insulin resistance, a disorder in which the cells do not use insulin properly. As the need for insulin rises, the pancreas gradually loses its ability to produce it. Type 2 diabetes is associated with older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, history of gestational diabetes, impaired glucose metabolism, physical inactivity, and race/ethnicity. African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, American Indians, and some Asian Americans and Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders are at particularly high risk for type 2 diabetes and its complications. Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents, although still rare, is being diagnosed more frequently among American Indians, African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and Asians/Pacific Islanders.

Gestational diabetes is a form of glucose intolerance diagnosed during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes occurs more frequently among African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and American Indians. It is also more common among obese women and women with a family history of diabetes. During pregnancy, gestational diabetes requires treatment to normalize maternal blood glucose levels to avoid complications in the infant. Immediately after pregnancy, 5% to 10% of women with gestational diabetes are found to have diabetes, usually type 2. Women who have had gestational diabetes have a 40% to 60% chance of developing diabetes in the next 5–10 years.

Other types of diabetes result from specific genetic conditions (such as maturity-onset diabetes of youth), surgery, medications, infections, pancreatic disease, and other illnesses. Such types of diabetes account for 1% to 5% of all diagnosed cases.

Prediabetes

Before developing type 2 diabetes most people almost always have "prediabetes".  People who have prediabetes will have blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. There are 79 million people in the United States who have prediabetes and approximately 1,062,500 people in Wisconsin age 20 years and older have prediabetes. Recent research shows that some long-term damage to the body, especially the heart and circulatory system, may already be occurring during pre-diabetes.

The good news is that the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) study showed that people with pre-diabetes can prevent the development of type 2 diabetes by making lifestyle changes such as increasing physical activity and making healthy changes in their food intake.  The DPP also showed that participating in 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day and a 5-10% reduction in body weight resulted in a 58% reduction in diabetes. 

Do you have prediabetes or are you at risk for developing diabetes?  If you answered yes, click on the Diabetes Support Group link below for more information about a free educational program to help improve your health and reduce your risk for developing type 2 diabetes. 

To find out more about how the Wisconsin Diabetes Advisory Group, along with the Department of Health Services’ Diabetes Prevention and Control Program and other state partners are working to address diabetes prevention and control please visit http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/health/diabetes/strategicplan.HTM

Please also visit the American Diabetes Association website at http://www.diabetes.org/ to find out more about prediabetes and diabetes prevention and control.

Community Outreach