Booleroo Centre and Orroroo diabetes educators, Liz Bishop and Di Barrie, organised two days of extensive Diabetes Information Sessions in Booleroo Centre and Peterborough recently.
The educators were delighted to see so many people come along on both days in spite of the very hot weather.
On the Thursday afternoon, 25 people attended a community session to hear some excellent guest speakers.
National Diabetes Services Scheme manager Trudy Lucas, spoke about the scheme which has been run by Diabetes SA for 22 years.
Diabetes SA began in 1953 with the aim of prevention, detection, management and cure for diabetes. There are 83,471 people registered with NDSS in South Australia.
Ms Lucas spoke about extending their sub-agents, new logos and how they can help people with diabetes or caring for someone with the disease.
This includes education sessions, easy access to necessary supplies, as well as general diabetes foods available at discount prices, informative magazines and just being available for a chat. Dr Pat Phillips, senior director of endocrinology at North Western Adelaide Health Service and clinical manager and diabetes educator at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Jane Giles, then took over the meeting.
They said they appreciated people coming out in such heat, and spoke on “sick day plans” for managing diabetes when the patient is ill and needs to keep their diabetes on track.
They explained some reasons why blood sugar rises when sick and not eating, how to monitor blood sugar correctly, and the importance of testing at different times over a few weeks.
Both speakers were able to answer questions on various subjects relating to diabetes.
Representatives with information on blood glucose metres, diabetes education information, Accuchek, Roche Diagnostics, a podiatrist, Mirzah Beslagic, on foot health and a dietician, Louisa Li, were all present.
Mrs Bishop thanked all for coming, the Rural Health Team for their support and funding,and the Melrose Hospital Auxiliary for supplying a delicious afternoon tea.
A staff session followed the community session when 18 practice nurses in the region, diabetic educators and Booleroo Centre Hospital staff were able to interact with the guest speakers. In the evening a dinner was held at North Star Hotel, Melrose, courtesy of the Division of GPs. Twenty doctors, pharmacists, diabetes educators and practice nurses attended and found it very worthwhile.
On Friday, similar sessions were held at Peterborough, beginning with a session for staff from Peterborough and Orroroo hospitals. This was followed with a community session in the afternoon where 25 people attended to hear the same speakers from the day before.
The same related representatives were present, plus an insulin rep, Michelle Ostrowski, and John Lehmann from Sanofi Aventis.
Peterborough Hospital catered for morning and afternoon tea and lunch for that day.
A few lucky people won Heart Foundation cookbooks as prizes over the two days, but all those who attended were lucky to be able to tap into a wealth of knowledge about diabetes and how to live with it successfully.
Both diabetic educators were extremely pleased with both days.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to be able to listen to guest speakers of such excellent calibre in a relaxed and informal setting, as well as being able to ask any questions on any aspects of diabetic management,” Mrs Bishop said.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter