NDEP has mailed partners CD kits with various tools to help you implement NDEP’s updated Control Your Diabetes. For Life. campaign messages. Kit materials are in English and Spanish, and include posters, a customizable press release, live-read radio PSA, fact sheet, feature article, e-newsletter blurb, and tips and talking points for the media.

These CD kits provide tools that can be customized to help communicate our new messages, which emphasize:

• the seriousness of diabetes,
• the importance of managing the disease, particularly in the early years after diagnosis, to prevent or delay complications (based on the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Follow-Up Study), and
• the idea that managing diabetes is not easy, but it is worth it. People living with diabetes are featured in the posters and PSAs with a family member.

We encourage you to promote our new messages beginning in November for National Diabetes Awareness Month and beyond. With many voices echoing a single message, we can reach the millions of people with diabetes and their caregivers.

If you did not receive a kit, please visit www.YourDiabetesInfo.org and check under the “What’s New?” section on the right side of the webpage. Follow the campaign link to download the kit materials.

One way you can help spread the campaign messages is by getting your local media involved. Here are some steps to help you get started:

• Contact your local paper, television, or radio station about your story or event.
• Use the CD kit materials to supply more information to the reporter, writer, or editor. Offer the customizable press release and fact sheet for the writer to develop his or her story. The NDEP website, www.YourDiabetesInfo.org, also provides additional information.
• Target reporters who have published articles about health issues in the past.
• Localize the story by focusing on local people, events, organizations, or statistics specific to your area. To find more diabetes statistics and prevalence rates for your area, please go to apps.nccd.cdc.gov/ddtstrs/ or your state department of health.
• Line up spokespeople from within your organization or community who are involved with diabetes: health care professionals, community leaders, and people with diabetes. Offering these spokespeople to the writer will help them add a human element to the story.

Important Note: If you were not able to participate in our August 27 call, in which we discussed ways to implement the campaign in November and beyond, you can call this number to listen to the recording: (866) 854-2507. The replay code is: 823166.

On the August 23 episode of Lifetime Television’s hit show “Army Wives,” lead character Claudia Joy Holden, portrayed by actress Kim Delaney, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Holden’s diagnosis was made following her becoming faint, losing control of her car, and being taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The storyline involving Holden dealing with her diabetes diagnosis will be highlighted throughout the season.

NDEP resources, including public service announcements, may be shown during the program online and throughout the series. Ann Albright, Ph.D., R.D., Director of CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation, has served as a subject matter consultant for the storyline. Visit the Lifetime Television website for more information and to watch for NDEP materials. The show airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

The Partners & Community Organizations webpage on NDEP’s redesigned website, www.YourDiabetesInfo.org, is now more convenient and user friendly. Partners can easily access current and archived issues of News & Notes and NDEP Update, download web banners and logos, and view or order relevant NDEP publications and resources, including feature articles and PSAs. In addition, NDEP has a new and improved “Partner Spotlight” section on this webpage that highlights partners who have promoted NDEP materials and messages in innovative and unique ways. In the future, NDEP hopes to enhance the “Partner Spotlight” section to include photos and videos of featured partners. Report your activities on the annual partner survey, and you may see your good work in the Spotlight.

Important Note: Please Update Your NDEP Links
If you currently link to any of NDEP’s resources or web pages on your website, your links need to be updated in order to connect you to NDEP’s redesigned website. Please check any existing links to the NDEP website and update as necessary. Contact your organization’s webmaster for more information.

The NDEP Business Health Strategy Work Group has redesigned the www.diabetesatwork.org website marketing brochure. The new brochure has updated statistics and describes the resources available. It is in a one-page format that can be photocopied (black and white or color), ordered, or downloaded so that it can be placed in newsletters from business coalitions, company wellness programs, Diabetes Prevention and Control Programs, distributed at meetings, or even e-mailed to public and private partners.

Free copies will be available at the end of September to download or order at www.YourDiabetesInfo.org, or call 1-888-693-NDEP (6337).

NDEP is currently promoting a diabetes prevention message about the lifelong risk for developing diabetes in women with a history of gestational diabetes and their children using a new feature article entitled, “Nunca es muy temprano para prevenir la diabetes tipo 2: Información para usted y su familia”* to Spanish-language print and online publications. The article provides tips to help women and their families lower their risk for diabetes. For more information in Spanish, read NDEP’s Nunca es muy temprano para prevenir la diabetes. Pequeños pasa de por vida para una familia sana* tip sheet.

NDEP encourages you to promote the feature article 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 October, NDEP will distribute a new feature article “American Indians & Alaska Natives: You Have the Power to Prevent Diabetes; The Research Says So!”* about ways American Indians and Alaska Natives can become more physically active and make healthy food choices to American Indian and Alaska Native print and online publications. For more tips for American Indians and Alaska Natives on preventing type 2 diabetes, read NDEP’s We Have the Power to Prevent Diabetes tip sheet.

Also in October, NDEP will join forces with the organizers of the 9th Annual Binational Health Week to promote NDEP’s Más que comida, es vida.* (It's more than food. It's Life.*). Additionally, as part of Hispanic Heritage Month, NDEP will promote the updated “Paso a Paso (Step by Step)” music CD/DVD and information card with tips for being more physically active. The CD/DVD includes lively songs with empowering messages that urge listeners to move more.

A new DVD version of the video “Five Communities Reach Out” and an updated version of the accompanying discussion guide will also be promoted in October. The DVD uses a storytelling approach to show how five ethnically-diverse communities are dealing with diabetes.

In November, NDEP will distribute a new feature article highlighting the refreshed Control Your Diabetes. For Life. campaign messages. Visit the NDEP website, www.YourDiabetesInfo.org, for more campaign tools.

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 resources to promote diabetes awareness in your community. Or take our feature articles, press releases and media advisories, 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 resources that tie into the following month’s promotions and can help us promote NDEP together.

Updated resources on Novel H1N1 (Swine) Flu and diabetes can now be found on CDC’s website, www.cdc.gov/diabetes. These resources include general information for people with diabetes and those who care for them, H1N1 vaccination guidelines, recommendations for schools and businesses, sick day rules for people with diabetes, and everyday steps to protect one’s health. The goal is to vaccinate everybody. In case of limited vaccine availability, people with diabetes ages six months through 64 years are considered to be in the first priority group of people to receive the H1N1 vaccine, because of a higher risk of complications from Novel H1N1. It also is important not to forget about seasonal flu vaccine as well.

For more flu information, visit www.flu.gov/faq/index.html or www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity has released the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) obesity map. The key findings of the analysis are that obesity numbers continue to rise, and there are now six states that have a prevalence of 30 percent or more: Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Thirty-two states, including these six, had obesity prevalence of 25 percent or more. Only one state, Colorado, had a prevalence of obesity less than 20 percent.

The proportion of U.S. adults who are obese increased to 26.1 percent in 2008 compared to 25.6 percent in 2007, and no state showed a significant decrease in obesity prevalence from 2007 to 2008.

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

• American Academy of Family Physicians Annual Scientific Assembly
  October 14-17, 2009, Boston, MA
• American Dietetic Association Food & Nutrition Conference and Expo 2009
  October 17-20, 2009, Denver, CO
  Ann Albright, Ph.D., R.D. and Joanne Gallivan, M.S., R.D. will present on October 20 at 9:45 a.m. during a session entitled, “Navigating the Changing Landscape of Diabetes: Clinical Implications and Resources to Help.”
• American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition
  October 17-20, 2009, Washington, D.C.
• International Diabetes Federation 20th World Diabetes Congress
  October 18-22, 2009, Montreal, Canada
  Join Joanne Gallivan, M.S., R.D. for a poster session entitled, “Diabetes Prevention and Control: Public Education Initiatives in the U.S.” on October 21 at 12:00 p.m.Betsy Rodriguez, M.S.N., C.D.E. will present on lessons learned while working with lay health workers to develop NDEP’s The Road to Health Toolkit during a session entitled, “The Role of Lay Health Workers on Primary Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes." This presentation will be on October 22 at 8:30 a.m.
• American Public Health Association 137th Annual Meeting
  November 11-17, 2009, Philadelphia, PA
  Betsy Rodriguez, M.S.N., C.D.E. and Claire McCarty will present during a session entitled, "Lessons Learned in the Development of a Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Train-the-Trainer Toolkit for Community Health Workers." This presentation will be on Tuesday, November 10 at 12:30 p.m. Michelle D. Owens-Gary, Ph.D., Quanza Brooks-Griffin, M.P.A., and Anna Taylor Ellis will present a case study on issues associated with diabetes and depression for women, and will describe materials on mental health developed by NDEP. This presentation will be on November 10 at 10:30 a.m.
• American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2009
  November 14-18, 2009, Orlando, FL