The fight against diabetes received a significant boost this weekend (3 & 4 March) as over thirty healthcare professionals completed a Diabetes Educators’ Course.

Sponsored by Rotary Central, the course focused on disease management strategies, addressing a critical shortage of healthcare professionals with the necessary ability to teach their patients self-management skills.

“Diabetes and its complications are among the five leading causes of death worldwide. It is therefore important that people with diabetes be taught self-management skills in order to reduce the risk of complications from this disease. Unfortunately, to date, there have been only a few persons with this skill in the Caribbean,” explained Rotary Central’s Chairperson for its Diabetes Initiative Ms. Zelta Gayle, RGN.

“This Diabetes Educators’ Course has been developed to train healthcare professionals to provide accurate, effective and culturally sensitive education to people with diabetes in the Caribbean.

“By working as a member of a diabetes management team, the diabetes educator will improve the care that patients with diabetes receive by empowering the patient to make the necessary behavioural changes they need to manage their disease more effectively,” Ms. Gayle noted further.

Attending the certification ceremony, the Minister of Health the Hon. Mark Scotland, JP, said while diabetes is one of the leading healthcare challenges, it is also one of the world’s most preventable epidemics which can be countered through education and a strong focus on prevention disease management.

Addressing the participants which included doctors, nurses, pharmacists and nutritionists, the Minister of Health said: “While fighting diabetes is everyone’s battle, it is a fact that you healthcare professionals, you do find yourselves on the frontlines of the struggle. You know first-hand that diabetes and its complications are among the five leading causes of death worldwide. Through equipping yourselves as diabetes educators, you are now able to teach the crucial self-management skills that are essential to reducing the risk of complications from diabetes.”