Diabetes in Special and Vulnerable Populations: Learning Collaboratives
March 2023
Purpose
Each session focused on specific strategies for developing, evaluating, and supporting effective health care delivery models designed to meet the specific needs of special and vulnerable populations. Coordinators ensured that webinar materials were practical, providing information and enhancing skills directly related to the training recipients. Based on HRSA recommendations, future conversations will focus on health centers and incorporate how NTTAPs, PCAs, and HCCNs support diabetes quality improvement around various topic areas (i.e., food security, clinical guidelines, reimbursement, technology utilization, etc.)
Registration is now closed for this Learning Collaborative Series. See below for summaries of each of the four Learning Collaboratives.
Diabetes Continuum of Care: Environmental Impacts on Diabetes Management and Access to Care
Description:
This Learning Collaborative will focus on environmental justice and the impacts of a changing climate on diabetes management and access to care. Guest speakers will discuss the intersection of environmental justice with diabetes care and management in health centers, strategies to support patients impacted by climate-related natural disasters, and practical steps and tools to support health center staff in promoting access to care.
Objectives:
Demonstrate the intersection(s) between environmental justice, climate change, and diabetes management and access to care;
Describe the impacts of climate-related events and natural disasters on diabetes management and access to care;
Identify specific impacts of climate-related events and natural disasters on access to diabetes care for agricultural workers, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and other special and priority health center populations;
Share resources and tools for health centers to incorporate climate change considerations into diabetes management and access to care.
Collaborators:
Diabetes Continuum of Care: Creating Your Best Team to Support Chronic Disease Management & Patient Care
Description
Staff wellness is vital to comprehensive patient care for chronic disease management. This Learning Collaborative will explore strategies to promote staff well-being to increase their capacity to support patients with chronic illnesses. We will focus on best practices to ensure intersectionality within team-based care and the adoption of policies that encourage inclusivity and well-being in the health center environment. We will conclude the Learning Collaborative with a workshop on equitable approaches to Human Resources and staff support.
Objectives:
Draw the connection between staff wellness and comprehensive care for chronic conditions;
Consider intersection approaches to team-based care;
Explore policies that health centers can adopt to be more inclusive and to promote staff well-being;
Workshop equitable approaches to Human Resources and staff support.
Collaborators:
Diabetes Continuum of Care: Improving Emergency Preparedness for Diabetes Management
Description
Natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and other emergencies can happen at any moment. Managing diabetes can be difficult during these events because they may cause widespread and long-lasting impacts on supplies and health services. This four-session learning collaborative will list the frequent barriers health centers face to provide effective emergency preparedness for patients with diabetes, explore the role of enabling services staff to help diabetic patients during disasters, and identify promising practices for effective personalized diabetes care during emergencies. After completing this series, participants will be able to:
1) Understand the barriers to effective emergency preparedness for diabetic patients
2) Explore the role of enabling services staff in patient engagement related to ongoing diabetes self-management
3) Identify and implement best practices related to effective personalized diabetes care during emergencies
Objectives:
Understand the barriers to effective emergency preparedness for diabetic patients;
Explore the role of enabling services staff in patient engagement related to ongoing diabetes self-management
Identify best practices to promote the preparation of personalized diabetes care checklists and disaster supply kits.
Collaborators:
Diabetes Continuum of Care: Understanding Social Determinants of Health and Structural Barriers Affecting Diabetes Care
Description
This learning collaborative will discuss the structural barriers and social determinants of health affecting diabetes care management. Sessions will address social risk factors such as housing, food, and transportation barriers that impact patients' ability to be active participants in their own care and management of diabetes. Participants will be given long and short-term strategies and tools to implement at the clinic and community levels to address these factors.
Objectives:
Explore the Structural Competency framework and define the fundamental concepts of structural violence, structural racism, structural vulnerability, and naturalizing inequality;
Explain how inequalities in communities’ conditions affect health outcomes and promote active transportation that can help protect the environment and improve overall health;
Identify areas of effective local, regional, and national strategies to help improve our food systems and the policies that affect this SDOH, therefore enhancing healthy lifestyles;
Structural racism and historical policies such as redlining, Jim Crow laws, and exclusionary zoning laws have fueled racism, denied opportunities for upward mobility, and serve as critical drivers of homelessness and health disparities today. Learning Objectives for this session include (1) An understanding of the historical context of housing insecurity and its relation to health outcomes (2) an understanding of the homeless response system, and sources for housing resources, and (3) how to become an active partner within the broader community effort to reduce housing insecurity and homelessness;