Emerson Hospital Offers New Diabetes Education Class

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is a press release from Emerson Hospital.)

Emerson Hospital will offer a series of four group diabetes education classes in May. Called conversation mapping, the class is an interactive way for patients to learn more about diabetes.

A conversation map is a series of images and metaphors on a tabletop display that health care professionals use to engage groups of patients in dialogue around a health care topic. In conversation mapping, patients participate in interactive activities to identify facts and myths about the health care topic and uncover information related to the health condition, ultimately resulting in behavior change.

“Mapping is endorsed by the American Diabetes Association as an innovative way to learn about diabetes,” said Cheryl Laundry, RN, BS, CDE, diabetes educator at Emerson Hospital. Laundry has been using the conversation mapping education method since 2008. 

Classes will be held in a four-part series in the 3^rd floor conference room at Emerson’s Center for Specialty Care, located at 54 Baker Ave Extension in Concord. Classes run from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on the dates listed below, with each session covering a different conversation map.

May 10  – On the Road to Better Manage Your Diabetes – Covers basic concepts a diabetic patient needs to know in relation to diabetes and managing the disease.

May 17  – Diabetes and Healthy Eating – Engages participants in a more detailed discussion about the connection between food and diabetes and the importance of healthy eating to manage diabetes.

May 24 - Monitoring Your Blood Glucose – Discusses the importance of monitoring blood glucose, managing high and low blood glucose, and how to use the results to better manage diabetes.

May 31 – Continuing Your journey with Diabetes – Explains more complex concepts related to diabetes, including the natural course of diabetes, medicine options for people with diabetes today, what insulin is and how it works, long-term complications associated with diabetes, and the ABCs: A1C, blood pressure and cholesterol.

Diabetes self-management education is covered by insurance for:

• New onset diabetes
• Inadequate glycemic control defined by 2 A1c levels over 8.5 percent for two or more tests, at least three months apart
• Changes in treatment regimen from no medication to oral, oral to insulin
• High risk of acute complications based on inadequate control that resulted in an emergency room visit or hospitalization
• High risk based on at least one of the following documented complications:
  • Lack of feeling in the foot or other foot complications
  • Preproliferative or proliferative retinopathy
  • Kidney complications with albuminuria or elevated creatinine

Emerson Hospital’s diabetes self-management education program was recently awarded Education Recognition by the American Diabetes Association for providing high-quality education services to the patients it serves. Programs that achieve Recognition status have a team of knowledgeable health professionals who provide state-of-the-art information about diabetes management. The program was originally awarded this recognition in July 2002.

Space is limited. For more information and to register, call (978) 287-8590.