The Road to Health Toolkit has been developed to assist community health workers and promotores de salud in providing outreach education to African American/African Ancestry and Hispanic/Latino communities. The toolkit features reliable, culturally appropriate, and easy-to-use materials that focus on making healthy food choices and increasing physical activity. It includes a user’s guide, activities guide, resources guide, photo journal, music CDs/DVDs, supplemental CD-ROM as well as other toolkit components housed in a limited edition tote bag (available while supplies last). To order your copy of the toolkit, visit www.YourDiabetesInfo.org or call 1-888-693-NDEP (6337).

NDEP is currently promoting healthy food choices for Pacific Islanders using a new feature article entitled, “Grade-A Grocery List: Tips to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes in Pacific Islander Communities”* to Pacific Islander print and online media. The article is part of the “Grade-A Grocery List” feature article series that also addresses general and Asian American audiences with “Grade-A Grocery List: Tips to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes”* and “Grade-A Grocery List: Tips to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes in Asian Americans.”*

Each article highlights grocery shopping tips for people at risk for type 2 diabetes and includes special audience-specific, healthy foods. 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.

NDEP encourages you to promote the feature articles to local media and to your partners. For example, add your organization’s logo,* name, mission, and contact information to highlight how you and NDEP are working together. Then submit the article to your local newspaper or promote it in your organization’s newsletter.

In June, NDEP will distribute a new feature article entitled “Five Questions to Ask Your Health Care Team About Your Type 2 Diabetes”* authored by NDEP Chair Martha Funnell, M.S., R.N., C.D.E. to general print and online publications. The article provides questions that people can ask their health care team during their routine check-up to learn more about managing their disease. For more tips on managing diabetes, read NDEP’s 4 Steps to Control Your Diabetes. For Life.  brochure.

In July, NDEP will distribute a new feature article entitled “African Americans: How to Lose Weight & Lower Diabetes Risk” to African American print and online publications. This article highlights ways African Americans can become more physically active and make healthy food choices. For more tips for African Americans on preventing type 2 diabetes, read NDEP’s More Than 50 Ways to Prevent Diabetes tip sheet.

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.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is proud to announce that Judith McDivitt, Ph.D, has accepted the position of Co-Director/Team Lead for NDEP, CDC. Jude stepped in as Acting NDEP Team Lead under a detail assignment in March. As Co-Director, Jude shares the leadership responsibilities for the NDEP with her NIH counter-part, Joanne Gallivan, M.S., R.D. Jude’s extensive experience in health communication, social marketing, and research and evaluation will help to advance the many accomplishments of the NDEP.

Also, Betsy Rodriguez, R.N., M.S.N., C.D.E., has accepted the position of Deputy Director for the NDEP. Betsy has served as the Acting Deputy Director for the past six months. She brings a wealth of NDEP experience and social marketing expertise to this role, and she has been an integral part of the NDEP’s many successes to date. Her recent efforts include leading the revision of the Más que comida, es vida.* (It’s More Than Food. It’s Life.) English and Spanish recipe booklet and developing the Road to Health Toolkit.

The 10th annual National Women’s Health Week kicks off on Mother’s Day, May 10. The nationwide initiative, coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health, is dedicated to educating women about steps they can take to improve their health, reduce their risk for many diseases, and live longer, healthier, and happier lives. There are several ways you can be a National Women’s Health Week partner, including: encouraging women in your community to visit their health care professional, organizing a free screening or health event, including information in your newsletter, disseminating women’s health information, or having a display in your facilities. 

For more information and free promotional materials or to register your activities, please go to www.womenshealth.gov/whw or call 1-800-994-9662.

To help educate women about reducing their risk for diabetes, NDEP offers tips for mothers to stay healthy and care for their children. NDEP’s It's Never Too Early to Prevent Diabetes. A Lifetime of Small Steps for a Healthy Family.* tip sheet provides information to help women with a history of gestational diabetes prevent or delay type 2 diabetes and help their children lower their risk for the disease.

Stop by and visit NDEP at the following upcoming exhibits and presentations:

• 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
  The NDEP presentation will be on June 8 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. during a session entitled, “Helping You Change the Way Diabetes is Treated – In Your Practice, in Your Community, and in the Lives of Your Patients – An Update From the National Diabetes Education Program.” Highlights include presentations from Judith Fradkin, M.D., Ann Albright, Ph.D., R.D., Roger Chene, M.P.H., R.D., and Martha Funnell, M.S., R.N., C.D.E.
• 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
  Martha Funnell, M.S., R.N., C.D.E., will present June 17 at 1:30 p.m., “What’s New in Diabetes.”
  
• National Association of School Nurses’ 41st Annual Conference
  June 25-28, 2009, Boston, MA
  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?”
• American Association of Diabetes Educators 36th Annual Meeting
  August 5-8, 2009, Atlanta, GA
  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 August 5 at 10:45 a.m. during a session entitled, “Helping the Student with Diabetes Succeed: Strategies and Tools for Diabetes Management at School.” Joanne Gallivan and Clarice Brown will present on August 7 at 1:30 p.m. during a session entitled, “Using Information from National Surveys to Guide Clinical Encounters.”