Health care fight traps diabetes program

Prevention effort is ready to begin, but funding is frozen

A diabetes prevention program slated to begin in the Bronx this fall may be cancelled before it begins, a victim in the national debate over the federal budget and health care.

Health People, a non-profit agency based on Southern Blvd. in Mott Haven, announced on Sept. 23 that it had trained 10 local residents who would reach out to residents at risk of contracting diabetes and help them to a healthier lifestyle.

Days later, Chris Norwood, founder and executive director of Health People, said that although the program is ready to launch, Health People doesn’t have the resources to sustain it.

The program, certified by the Centers for Disease Control, is a proven approach that can slash the risk of developing diabetes in half said Norwood..

“It is deplorable,” she said. “Public health establishments have to fight harder for this.”

In New York City diabetes-related death rates have reached an all-time high.

Diabetes either contributed to or directly led to the deaths of 5,695 New Yorkers in 2011 according to a report from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

That’s one death every 90 minutes; 16 deaths a day.

The Bronx has been hit harder than any other borough. It suffers from the highest percentage of adults with diabetes and the highest death rate.

Mott Haven is at the center of this epidemic, with the second worst diabetes rate in the entire city.

Thanks to a 2012 grant from the CDC, Health People’s 10 peer mentors were certified as “lifestyle coaches” by the Center for Excellence in Aging and Community Wellness in Albany this summer. They are ready to begin teaching a year-long, 22-session course in hard-hit Bronx communities.

When it started to train the coaches, Health People faced a dilemma, Norwood said: though it had no guarantee that the program would be funded, “If we didn’t have the coaches the South Bronx would be the last on the list,” she said.

Without funding, Norwood explained, it is unlikely that Health People will be able to hold classes.

Although the initiative is part of the National Diabetes Prevention Program, a major nationwide preventative effort put forward by the CDC to combat non-communicable diseases, the CDC has been forced to cut almost $200 million from these programs in 2013, according to a fact sheet posted on the CDC Web site detailing the impact of the across-the-board federal budget cuts known as the sequester.

Funds that would normally have been given to intermediary organizations for distribution to local agencies have disappeared, according to Norwood.

New York State applied for Medicare funds in 2012 to fund prevention programs like Health People’s, but the state’s request is still waiting for federal approval, and has become trapped in legislative limbo by the continued argument over health care reform.

“The federal government has spent $100 million on studying it; why delay?” Norwood asked.

Inaction is costly: $245 billion is spent each year to treat diabetes, according to research conducted by the American Diabetes Association.

Implementing the prevention program nationwide would save roughly $5.7 billion while preventing the onset of diabetes in 885,000 cases according to the CDC.

A three-year study conducted by the agency showed that educating people at risk for diabetes in healthy eating habits, fitness and stress management reduced their risk of developing diabetes by an average of 58 percent. By making modest changes, participants could lose 5 to 7 percent of their body weight.

If current trends continue, however, one in three Americans could have diabetes by 2050, according to the study. Rates of blindness, heart disease, kidney failure and amputations caused by diabetes, already at a record high, would continue to rise.

Darlene Cruz, a Soundview resident and the coordinator of lifestyle coaches for Health People’s prevention program, said for her and her fellow coaches, the effort to help their community is personal.

“All of us are affected or infected,” she said.

Since they were certified, the coaches have been able to share their training with friends and family, but they lack the means to reach the large number of people diagnosed as pre-diabetic in the neighborhood.

“It’s in epidemic proportions in the Bronx,” Cruz said.

“The coaches have been spreading the word and we have gotten tremendous feedback,” said Cruz. “Everybody wants to know when and where.”

For now, the answer is nowhere.

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Ross Keith

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