Diabetes 2019

Being diagnosed with diabetes can be a scary thing. You are forced to think differently about how and what you eat. It calls for lifestyle changes that people over 40 years old (a common time in life to learn you have diabetes) may not be prepared for because they have become set in their ways. If you get diagnosed with diabetes, you need to move out of the comfort zone of your living room couch and become more active.

The other thing to remember is that you are not alone. Nearly one in ten people in the United States or more than 30 million people have diabetes according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). You can also rely on experts from AtlantiCare who are specially-trained nurses and dieticians known as certified diabetes educators. At our health system these educators are referred to as TEAM Diabetes, because we believe our primary mission is to Teach, Encourage, Assist and Motivate our patients.

We offer classes to help people with diabetes learn to monitor and manage their own diabetes. Some of the topics we cover in our diabetes education include:

• What is diabetes?
• Blood sugar monitoring and target goals
• Eating Healthy Basics
• Medications to treat diabetes
• How to manage/avoid acute complications
• How to manage/avoid chronic complications
• Diabetes standards of care

Our approach with patients newly diagnosed with diabetes is to keep it simple and make it clear they can play a significant role in managing their diabetes through their daily lifestyle choices. We developed an easy to remember phrase to help them stay on track known as “Meet Me at 7.” The acronym spells out: MEET ME @ 7

• Monitor your blood sugar every day, or as advised by your healthcare provider.
• Eat a healthy balanced diet and read food labels.
• Exercise and be active.
• Treat your blood sugar-Learn from your healthcare team how to prevent and manage emergencies.
• Medication faithfulness is vital. Take the correct dose daily as prescribed by your doctor.
• Evaluate yourself from head to toe and follow-up with your provider as recommended.
• @ 7% or less is your A1C goal.

To learn more about diabetes services available at AtlantiCare, call 1-888-569-1000 or visit: https://www.atlanticare.org/services/diabetes/

By: Meaghan Kim, RN, director of Population Health at AtlantiCare