NDEP has begun mailing partners CD kits with various tools to help you implement NDEP’s new 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 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 Perspective 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 have not received a free CD kit and would like one, contact Rachel Byrd at rbyrd@hagersharp.com.

Additionally, NDEP is inviting partners to participate in a conference call Thursday, August 27, at 2 p.m. E.T., when we will discuss ways to implement the campaign during National Diabetes Awareness Month in November and beyond. If you are interested in sharing ideas with other partners, contact rbyrd@hagersharp.com by Wednesday, August 26, to sign up for the call.

In the meantime, here are some steps to get started:

• Create your implementation team. Decide who within your organization can help and if you want to join forces with a partner(s) in your community: hospitals, clinics, community centers, gyms, faith-based organizations, grocery stores, or community service organizations.
• Set a meeting. Get your key implementers together to brainstorm ideas, assign responsibilities, create a timeline, and make a plan to evaluate your project.
• Go for it! Use the items in the free CD kit and make a plan that includes a list of events and outreach opportunities within your community.
• Let us know what you are doing. Please send an email to Rachel Byrd at rbyrd@hagersharp.com to tell us how you helped promote NDEP’s new control messages.

Griffin Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P., director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health recently promoted NDEP’s Control Your Diabetes. For Life. campaign on NIH Radio. During the interview, Dr. Rodgers discussed how people with type 2 diabetes can set goals to help them manage their diabetes, emphasized the importance of working with the health care team, and highlighted the need to get routine check-ups.

The interview can be found in its entirety at www.nih.gov/news/radio/jul2009/20090707NDEP.htm.

NDEP’s redesigned website, www.YourDiabetesInfo.org, includes many features to help you find the diabetes information you need fast. One of these new features is an easy-to-sort Publications List, which is available in English and Spanish. You can now sort publications by criteria such as “publication number” or “publication title” in three easy steps. For example:

1. Choose the publication that you’re interested in.
2. Find materials with similar or related content, and for a related ethnic group, by checking out the links that appear to the right of the publication that you selected.
3. Scroll to the right to add the publication to your shopping cart.

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.

NDEP is currently promoting ways parents and guardians can help their teen deal with their diabetes using a new feature article entitled, “Help Your Teen Deal with the Ups & Downs of Diabetes”* to parent and teen print and online publications. The article provides tips on how parents can help their teens deal with the unique challenges associated with diabetes. For more information on teens and diabetes, read NDEP’s Tips for Teens tip sheet series.

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.

NDEP will join forces with the organizers of the 9th Annual Binational Health Week (BHW), October 3-15, to promote NDEP’s Más que comida, es vida.* (It's more than food. It's Life.*) booklet to an extended audience. Hundreds of Más que comida booklets will be distributed to the consulates of all participating countries and to all coordinators of the Binational Health Week community events for dissemination to their constituents. Xóchitl Castañeda, a member of NDEP’s Hispanic/Latino Work Group, has been instrumental in facilitating this promotion.

BHW is one of the largest mobilization efforts of both federal and state government agencies, community-based organizations, and volunteers in the Americas to improve the health and well-being of the underserved Hispanic/Latino population living in the United States and Canada. It encompasses an annual, week-long series of health promotion and health education activities that include workshops, insurance referrals, and medical screenings. This year’s BHW will take place in 40 states in the U.S. and 3 provinces in Canada, with participation from consular networks in the United States of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador, and Perú.

For more information about the 9th Annual Binational Health Week, visit www.binationalhealthweek.org/.

In September, NDEP will distribute a feature article entitled, “Nunca es muy temprano para prevenir la diabetes tipo 2: Información para usted y su familia”* about the lifelong risk for developing diabetes in women with a history of gestational diabetes and their children to Spanish-language print and online publications. To learn more, read NDEP’s Nunca es muy temprano para prevenir la diabetes. Pequeños pasa de por vida para una familia sana* tip sheet.

In October, NDEP will distribute a new feature article 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.

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.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created a website to provide businesses with tools to help their employees maintain a healthy weight. LEANWorks! (LEAN stands for Leading Employees to Activity and Nutrition) offers science-based interventions to prevent and control obesity. On the website, employers are able to calculate the cost of obesity for their organizations, and develop tailored approaches to help control these costs through interventions such as fitness classes, lunchtime health education sessions, weight management programs, and more.

For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/leanworks/index.html.

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

• 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.”
• Gospel Fest 2009: An All Day Gospel Music/Health Care Festival
  August 7-8, 2009, Atlanta, GA
  Alexis Williams, M.P.H., C.H.E.S. will present “Everyday Tips for Helping Your Family Prevent Diabetes” using NDEP messages and materials on August 8 and CDC staff will display NDEP materials at the exhibit.
• 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