The Centretown Community Health Centre decided to help put together an event to raise diabetes awareness in Ottawa during World Diabetes Day, says Christine Silvestre, a registered nurse who teaches diabetes education classes at the Centretown Community Health Centre.
In Centretown alone about five per cent of residents have diabetes, says Betty MacGregor, manager for Community Diabetes Education Programs at the health centre.
“It was conceived by our program in Centretown to do something special for World Diabetes Day in Ottawa,” says Silvestre. “The goal on World Diabetes Day is really to raise awareness, because unfortunately there are a lot of people who don’t have any symptoms and aren’t being diagnosed.”
World Diabetes Day will be held in eight cities across Canada on Nov.14.
A number of cities throughout the world will light up buildings in blue. Ottawa and Toronto will light the Peace Tower of the Parliament buildings and the CN Tower, respectively, in blue, says says Jacquelyn Wright, the Canadian Diabetes Association’s regional director for eastern Ontario.
The Ottawa World Diabetes Day event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cartier Square Drill Hall beside City Hall.
There will be a risk screening booth, speeches from medical doctors and a hula hoop contest.
“We are offering the public the opportunity to come and be screened to see what their current risk is,” says Silvestre. “We’re not only going to look at their blood sugar, we are going to look at their cholesterol level, their waist circumference, and blood pressure.”
Silvestre says ten years ago the Centretown Community Health Centre became the first place offering diabetes education programs.
When the program first started there was only one nurse and one dietician, but now they have seven teams.
The programs offer information and support for people who are newly diagnosed with type two diabetes or are pre-diabetes, says MacGregor.
During the meetings registered nurses and dieticians teach about the disease and how to manage diabetes, looking at different aspects of relationships and emotions, and taking care of themselves through exercise and nutrition, said MacGregor.
“Of all diseases diabetes is the one that’s the most manageable. You really can have a lot of control, says Silvestre, a registered nurse who teaches some of the diabetes education classes. “You have to know what it is and you have to know how to make the right choices.”
Meetings are offered in a variety of different languages, including English, French, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, says MacGregor.
This is to satisfy Centretown’s multicultural population and because some ethnicities’ genetics are more prone to diabetes than others, says Silvestre.
“Diabetes is an epidemic for all people,” says Silvestre. “But it’s strongest amongst aboriginals, people of Latin American or Hispanic descent, African descent, as well as Asian descent. But it’s really growing everywhere.”
Silvestre said that through these information sessions and World Diabetes Day the Centretown Community Health Centre is trying to break down the stigma about having diabetes.