The 2009 NDEP Partnership Network Meeting - “The Power of NDEP in Your Community” - will be held August 17-18 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global Communications Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The meeting will consist of general sessions and workshops offered within three session tracks: Partnerships and Collaborations, Program Implementation and Evaluation, and Marketing and Media.

This meeting is open to community leaders, diabetes advocates, diabetes program coordinators, diabetes educators, health care professionals, health communications professionals, and anyone interested in diabetes prevention and control. For more information, contact Keith Aikens at keith.aikens@fleishman.com.

March 24 is American Diabetes Alert Day® - a one-day, “wake-up” call to inform the public about the seriousness of diabetes. Encourage people in your community to learn about diabetes, to visit their doctor to find out if they are at risk, and to learn what they can do to avoid the potentially dangerous consequences associated with the disease. As the American Diabetes Association promotes American Diabetes Alert Day®, NDEP will promote Your GAME PLAN to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes: Information for Patients as a useful resource to help people determine their risk for developing diabetes, and to help people with pre-diabetes take steps to lose weight and lower their risk for developing type 2 diabetes while there is still time to prevent its onset.

NDEP leadership roles at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are shifting. In February, Susan McCarthy, M.P.H., C.H.E.S. completed her 120-day detail as acting director of NDEP, CDC. She will return to her post as Health Education Specialist for CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health. NDEP thanks Ms. McCarthy for her service!

In addition, NDEP welcomes Judith McDivitt, Ph.D., Senior Health Communication Specialist for CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, who will be stepping in as acting director of NDEP, CDC.

In April, NDEP will distribute a new feature article entitled, “Be Sweet to Your Feet if You Have Diabetes”* to general print and online publications to highlight the importance of proper foot care for people with diabetes. For more tips to help people with diabetes take good care of their feet, read NDEP’s Take Care of Your Feet for a Lifetime brochure.

In May, NDEP will distribute two new feature articles to national and minority media - one for general audiences and another tailored for Asian American and Pacific Islander audiences - highlighting grocery shopping tips for people at risk for type 2 diabetes. For more tips on making healthy food choices to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes, read NDEP’s Get Real! You Don’t Have to Knock Yourself Out to Prevent Diabetes or Two Reasons I Find Time to Prevent Diabetes: My Future and Theirs* tip sheets.

In each issue of NEWS & NOTES look for NDEP promotional tools that are ready for you to personalize, customize, and distribute. For example, use our printer-ready public service announcements to make diabetes posters for upcoming events, health fairs, or your office. Use our customizable campaign tools to promote diabetes awareness in your community. Or take our feature articles, press releases, and public service announcements, and add your organization’s logo*.

By using our promotional tools, everybody wins. Your community newspaper receives a story with important health information for its readers, your organization receives good publicity, and you help NDEP continue to be the nation’s No. 1 resource for free information and materials on diabetes control and prevention. Each issue of NEWS & NOTES features tools that tie into the following month’s promotions and can help us promote NDEP together.

NDEP will present at the annual CDC Diabetes Translation Conference April 21-24 in Long Beach, California. The conference theme is “New Strategies for Changing Times.” The conference brings together a wide range of local, state, federal, and territorial governmental agencies and private-sector diabetes partners to explore science, policy, education, program planning, implementation, and evaluation to enhance public health approaches and strategies to prevent and control diabetes.

Conference Goals include:

• Increase knowledge and awareness of successful, cost-effective, public and private diabetes programs.
• Present innovative strategies to increase awareness of diabetes and how to prevent complications, disabilities, and burden associated with diabetes.
• Share and showcase effective strategies toward the elimination of diabetes-related health disparities.
• Provide opportunities for skill-building, information-sharing, and networking.

The annual Frankie Award Ceremony will take place on Tuesday, April 21, 2009. Be ready to learn about what our partners are doing with NDEP resources and messages!

For more information, please visit www.cdc.gov/diabetes/conferences/

NDEP regularly exhibits and presents at national meetings across the country. Exhibits provide an opportunity to share information and publications, promote NDEP messages and resources, and strengthen links with partner organizations. Stop by and visit NDEP at the following upcoming exhibits and presentations:

• American College of Cardiology’s 58th Annual Scientific Session
  March 29-31, 2009, Orlando, FL
• American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance’s National Convention
  March 31-April 4, 2009, Tampa, FL
• Association of Health Care Journalists’ Health Journalism 2009
  April 16-19, 2009, Seattle, WA
• CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation’s 2009 Conference
  April 21-24, 2009, Long Beach, CA
  Look for several presentations by NDEP staff and work group members.
• American College of Physicians’ Internal Medicine 2009
  April 23-25, 2009, Philadelphia, PA
• American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists’ 18th Annual Meeting
  May 13-17, 2009, Houston, TX
• American Academy of Physician Assistants’ 37th Annual Conference
  May 23-28, 2009, San Diego, CA
• American Diabetes Association’s 69th Scientific Sessions 2009
  June 5-9, 2009, New Orleans, LA
  NDEP presentation: June 8, at 8 a.m.
• The Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting
  June 10-13, 2009, Washington, DC
• American Academy of Nurse Practitioners’ 24th National Conference
  June 17-21, 2009, Nashville, TN
  NDEP presentation by Martha Funnell, M.S., R.N., C.D.E.
• National Association of School Nurses’ 41st Annual Conference
  June 25-28, 2009, Boston, MA
  Joanne Gallivan, M.S., R.D., and Nichole Bobo, R.N., M.S.N., A.N.P., will present an overview of the NDEP School Guide on June 26 at 1:15 p.m. and June 27 at 1 p.m. during sessions entitled, “What’s New in the 2009 NDEP Diabetes School Guide?”