According to statistics, about 4 million people are estimated to be living with diabetes in the UK, and the number is expected to rise to more than 5 million by 2025. Despite this fact, most people still do not have the right information about the disease. With November 14 as the World’s Diabetes Day, here are a few tips for health educators promoting diabetes awareness to patients.
1. Conduct Health Education On Diabetes
The most important and best way of promoting diabetes awareness is by sharing your knowledge about the disease. Teach your audience about the different types of diabetes, risk factors, symptoms and how best to deal with the disease. Don’t forget to provide education about the best nutrition, lifestyle choices, and activities for diabetes patients.
By providing the necessary knowledge about diabetes, you not only promote awareness about the disease, but also help patients improve the quality of their lives. You can hold talks within and outside hospitals, post informational content on your website or blogs, or send out posters and handouts. Just ensure to use a channel that reaches the most people.
2. Support Diabetes Awareness Campaigns
You can promote diabetes awareness by getting involved in activities related to this course. These include fundraisers, events, health-talks and forums as well as signing diabetes-related petitions. Try to involve patients in these events in order to create more impact.
Starting online conversations about diabetes and participating in online campaigns aiming at creating awareness is beneficial for the patient. Usually, these events and campaigns are meant to raise funds for healthcare and research, or for educational purposes. Your publicized involvement, therefore, helps create awareness about the disease.
3. Encourage Those at Risk to Test for Diabetes
The first step to effectively managing diabetes is knowing your status and risk. Encourage those at risk of diabetes to go for testing so that they can begin their treatment early. You can even partner with medical personnel and host a free medical camp for this purpose. Making it free helps attract more people who are not in a position to get tested due to factors like financial constraints.
The more people know about diabetes, the better equipped they are in dealing with it. Implementing the above tips will greatly contribute to increasing diabetes awareness and reducing the number of diabetes cases in the country.