Barriers for Achieving Glycemic Targets
Improved glycemic control in people with diabetes delays the onset and progression of severe microvascular complications of diabetes. Despite advances in pharmacotherapy and diabetes treatment devices and the emphasis placed on treatment adherence over the last decade, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data showed 45% of patients with diabetes did not achieve glycemic targets of <7%. Although some patients with diabetes may be undertreated (e.g., inappropriate treatment regimens, psychosocial issues that require adjustment in therapeutic targets), one reason for poor glycemic control is patients’ difficulty in following treatment prescriptions and recommendations for diabetes self-care. This collaborative addresses barriers for achieving glycemic targets and approaches and interventions that assist patients with managing diabetes.
Building an Effective Collaborative Care Team to Address Diabetes in Special and Vulnerable Populations: Tailoring Care for Social Context
This session focused on the necessary elements to develop a high functioning patient-centered team for diabetes prevention, management, and treatment in primary care. The session addressed the roles of all members of the team including the critical role of leadership and clinical champions to building an effective collaborative team. This session laid the groundwork for the full series by engaging participants in a discussion of how to tailor diabetes care for social context. The conversation focused on the key elements needed for treating diabetes in the primary care and community setting with an emphasis on team-based approaches to wellness.
Culturally Competent Care Learning Collaborative
To assist Health Centers in the adoption of the CLAS Standards and to equip providers with the competencies that will enable them to better treat the increasingly diverse population, NCHPH will be offering a 4-part learning collaborative. The interactive sessions will cover the fundamentals of cultural competency, language access, and building community partnerships through a combination of case studies and didactic learning.
Diabetes and Eye Exams in Primary Care
The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends that anyone with diabetes should receive a retinal exam every year. Early detection can reduce the risk of severe vision loss by 90% and significantly reduce long-term healthcare costs. Unfortunately, fewer than 50% of patients with diabetes get a diabetic eye screening annually. During this session NCHPH explored ways to prevent and limit the extent of DR in public housing primary care settings.
Forging Community Collaborations
During this informative conference call, NCHPH and PHPC Health Centers discuss the most recent topics regarding public housing and public housing primary care, including Envision Centers, Smoke Free Public Housing, Chronic Disease Management and Integrated Care, and PHPC trends. PHPC leaders offer new perspectives and solutions to improve the health status of public housing residents.
Health in Public Housing Advisory Group Call October 2019
In this call, NCHPH and the Advisory Group discussed HRSA priorities, increasing access to care and other important topics for Public Housing Primary Care.
Identifying and Treating People with Prediabetes
Prediabetes is a serious health condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 84 million American adults—more than 1 out of 3—have prediabetes. Of those with prediabetes, 90% don’t know they have it. In this session participants discussed statistics of prediabetes and conversion rates from prediabetes to diabetes, identify patients at risk for diabetes, resources to screen and test for prediabetes and the use of EHRs to identify people with prediabetes.
Microvascular Complications and Foot Care
The importance of protecting the body from hyperglycemia cannot be overstated; the direct and indirect effects on the human vascular tree are the major source of morbidity and mortality in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Diabetes complications are divided into microvascular (due to damage to small blood vessels) and macrovascular (due to damage to larger blood vessels). In this session, we discuss diabetes barriers to care and best practices to address microvascular complications among diabetic patients.
Nonadherence and Behavior Change: How are You Helping your Patients?
Research studies indicate that diabetes affects around 9% of the U.S. population, and it is a leading cause of heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, lower limb amputations, and blindness among U.S. adults. A recent CDC publication estimated direct medical costs attributable to this disease were $116 billion, and the number of patients with diabetes will more than double by 2050. Thus, diabetes is a highly prevalent disease that is important for both public health and public policy reasons.
Strategies for Diabetes Awareness, Prevention and Control: Focusing on Prediabetes
Increasing awareness and risk stratification of individuals with prediabetes may help physicians understand potential interventions that my help decrease the percentage of patients in their communities in whom diabetes develops. During this session NCHPH discussed strategies for diabetes awareness, prevention and control with a focus on Prediabetes.
Supporting Implementation of Smoking Cessation Programs in Public Housing Primary Care Settings 2020
This Learning Collaborative aimed to identify barriers to implementation of and strategies to establish smoking cessation programs in primary care settings through a series of four sessions: a didactic webinar, covering the behavioral aspects of cessation counseling, the FDA approved medications for cessation and some basic motivational interviewing techniques, and a subsequent three learning collaborative sessions, detailing how to conduct each counseling session whether they are individual or group. NCHPH provided a written protocol booklet to be used as a guide during actual sessions.
Supporting Implementation of Smoking Cessation Programs in Public Housing Primary Care Settings 2021
This NCHPH Learning Collaborative discussed ways to debunk the myth that smoking is an effective way to deal with stress, enumerated various proven stress management techniques, in depth, that can be used to maintain a quit, and discussed how to successfully teach these techniques to patients.
Transformation of Public Housing
During this conference call, NCHPH lead a discussion with PHPC advisory group members on the Moving to Work Demonstration program and Rental Assistance Demonstration program. An overview of the most recent National Health Center Needs Assessment results were highlighted in addition to discussing chronic medical conditions affecting PHPC patients.
Using Information Systems and Technology to Enhance Diabetes Care
Patients and physicians require new tools to manage the growing burden of chronic illness. For providers responsible for the care of diabetic patients, developments in information management, real-time health education and feedback, and new approaches to self-monitoring and insulin delivery hold great promise to improve the quality and safety of diabetes care. In this call, NCHPH and Health Centers participants shared some of the major developments in the field, and the ways these technologies can be integrated into a typical practice.
Violence and Opioid Abuse in Public Housing Communities
During this presentation, NCHPH highlighted the problems, solutions and opioid overdose training related to public housing residents. An overview of the likelihood of opioid abuse and the long-term effects on children due to violent experiences was provided in addition to a detailed description of the methodology behind NCHPH’s case study on Addressing Violence in Public Housing Communities. NCHPH also presented on case examples on what health centers are doing to mitigate the effects of violence and opioid abuse in public housing communities.