Diabetes is an illness that attacks one’s body and affects its ability to turn food into energy, and it is widely spread in the modern world. The state of Florida has been struggling in terms of providing quality and accessible healthcare. A recent survey found that the main problem with Lake County’s health care is the lack of transportation, insurance, and health literacy among Florida people (Ackermann & O’Brien, 2020). Moreover, diabetes is among the causes of early death in Lake County. Diabetes was found to put the patients at risk of becoming blind, having an amputation, and contracting kidney disease.
Since diabetes is a hard-to-treat disease, the County has created Be Well Lake County programs that seek to assist patients with diabetes type 2 to live healthy lives. The community health programs that started in Lake County were aimed at addressing the risk factors of diabetes, such as family history, environmental factors, weight, inactivity, age, and high blood pressure, among others. People who have relatives with diabetes type 2 have a high chance of having the disease (Jiang et al., 2018). Furthermore, the elderly people are at the greater risk of having diabetes.
In the U.S., the problem of diabetes appears to be relatively widely spread. There are 34.1 million people from the age of 18 and above with diabetes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). This data proves that diabetes is most prevalent in adults, not children. From 1999 to 2016, there was an increase in the number of adults aged above 18 years having diabetes, and more than 1.4 million US citizens aged above 20 years use insulin and have diabetes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). American Indians and Alaska natives had the highest prevalence of diabetes as compared to other racial groups (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Therefore, this problem appears to be hot-button in this region.
In Lake County, the Be Well health program seeks to improve the lives of diabetes patients by following several strategies. The first one is encouraging patients to visit physicians for one-on-one nutrition counselling sessions to teach them how to eat healthily. Another intervention strategy is group diabetes, where the patients get counselled and support each other (Ackermann & O’Brien, 2020). The County has also ensured that there is 24/7 access to the health information on the Internet and established appropriate patient education. The County’s health care facilities have been availing primary care to diabetes patients and dietitians to assist those seeking medical help on how to combat their disease.
The Lake County medical department has adopted the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention methods to deal with Diabetes type 2. At the primary level, the County focuses on preventing the susceptible populations from having diabetes (Jiang et al., 2018). The secondary one entails early diagnosis and adhering to specific strategies to stop the disease or delay its progress. In the tertiary level, the department seeks to implement measures to prevent patients from having disabilities and complications resulting from diabetes (Jiang et al., 2018). Lake County has been adhering to the primary level of prevention to ensure that its population is not at risk of getting diabetes by encouraging people to eat healthily and exercise. Moreover, they also use secondary prevention method to identify people with diabetes who are asymptomatic (Jiang et al., 2018). Additionally, the tertiary level is applied at Lake County as the department seeks to reduce the chances of complications for those with diabetes. They do this by screening for complications in the early stages of someone being diagnosed with diabetes.
The prevention levels being used by the Lake County medical department have been working well for patients. Recent research denotes that 77.8% of the diabetes patients have had a session with a doctor or physician to get advice on their diabetes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). This data depicts that the dieticians and doctors in Lake County have been doing a great job assisting diabetic patients to recover.
References
Ackermann, R. T., & O’Brien, M. J. (2020). Evidence and challenges for translation and population impact of the diabetes prevention program. Current Diabetes Reports, 20(9). Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). National diabetes statistics report [PDF document].
Jiang, L., Johnson, A., Pratte, K., Beals, J., Bullock, A., Manson, S. M., & the Special Diabetes Program for Indians Diabetes Prevention Program. (2018). Long-term outcomes of lifestyle intervention to prevent diabetes in American Indian and Alaska Native communities: The special diabetes program for Indians diabetes prevention program. Diabetes Care, 41(7), 1462-1470. Web.