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Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Tim Lester, Photographer There are two types of Diabetes, Type I and Type 2. Type I requires insulin injections, Type II can be managed through diet and exercise. In conjunction with Shannon Medical Center, the ASU clinic will be hosting a Diabetes Education Program every Tuesday in April. Classes are available in English and in Spanish. Each class runs for two hours.

Sophomore Jessica Baker pricks her finger to check her blood sugar about five times a day in order to monitor her diabetes. She is one of many who live with the disease and know how to properly manage it.

Diagnosed at age seven, Baker and her family received individual diabetes education, such as how to check her blood sugar, from their doctor and a registered dietician.

However, some diabetics fail to learn important information about their disease because of a lack of sufficient health insurance.

In response to this issue, Shannon Medical Center is hosting a Diabetes Education Program in the ASU University Health Clinic every Tuesday in April from 3:30-6 p.m. for the first class and 4-6 p.m. for the remaining three classes. A Spanish session is also offered on Thursday at the same time.

Shannon Health and Wellness is offering the state-funded course for uninsured people diagnosed with diabetes or for those whose insurance does not cover the class.

"It is a worthwhile program," nurse educator Virginia Dooley said, "and it is designed to target people who ordinarily wouldn't have access to diabetes education."

Twenty-year-old Baker is one of the privileged diabetics who received attentive training for her disease and now has the convenience of an insulin pump that gives her needed medicine every three minutes.

"When I was in the hospital when I first got diagnosed, our family had no clue how to bring my blood sugar down, how to give insulin shots or even load a syringe," Baker said. "So we had to be educated on all of that."

In the program, Dooley and the registered dietician Jane Cocuzzi are covering different segments about what the disease is, managing blood glucose, forms of helpful exercise and diabetes medicine.

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