An Interview That Did Not Happen

It is with great reluctance that I am doing this blog. I have been attempting contact with the Academy of Certified Diabetes Educators and I trust one of the current board members that on March 26 stated that my request for an email interview was being forwarded to the Academy Board President. It is now April 23, and I have had no contact with the current board president.

This does concern me as a person with type 2 diabetes. Then I opened the ACDE website and this I quote,

“An Important Legislative Update!

Indiana Diabetes Educator Licensure

The ACDE Board of Directors (BOD) was disappointed to learn that Indiana Governor Pence signed Bill SEA 233 into law. This bill allows for a person who has NO healthcare licensure or registration to obtain a “diabetes educator license” in Indiana. The ACDE BOD recognizes that only qualified licensed/registered health care professionals who have passed a validated examination are qualified to provide diabetes self-management education. We will work closely with NCBDE and the Indiana Medical Board regarding implementation of state regulations. Our goal is to educate legislators and the general public about the validity of the CDE® credential to ensure quality diabetes education services that meet national standards are provided to those with diabetes.”

Obviously, the Indiana state legislature and the Governor of Indiana saw a clear purpose for passing this bill and making it law. Could it be that the people of Indiana are not being served by the CDE profession? Could it also be that the medical community asked for this because of problems and lack of education being given by the CDEs in Indiana?

This should bring caution to both CDE organizations and cause for investigation before making the above statement. If either of my questions is answered yes, then the CDE profession needs to investigate the reasons the law was passed and find out what the members of their profession have done to cause the law in the first place.

I have been blogging about the lack of education for people with type 2 diabetes, whether on oral medications or insulin. Many of the doctors in the state of Iowa are also upset about the lack of and poor education provided people with type 2 diabetes. Even many people with type 2 diabetes do not like the education provided by CDEs when it amounts to mandates, mantras, and worn out cliches.

Several of our local doctors are working with people in the local diabetes support groups for education and spending some time educating groups of us to help their patients. It would be great if we could be reimbursed for some of our time, but currently we do this on a volunteer basis as we feel the urgent need to help the other people with type 2 diabetes.

The above notice from the ACDE website concerns me, as it appears that the organization wants to be in charge of limiting who can pass on knowledge about diabetes to other people with diabetes. This sentence from the above quote does make one question the motives and how exclusive they intend to become. “Our goal is to educate legislators and the general public about the validity of the CDE® credential to ensure quality diabetes education services that meet national standards are provided to those with diabetes.” Bold is my emphasis and whether the national standards will be for the benefit of people with type 2 diabetes.  Quality diabetes education requires more than mandates and without educators that have diabetes themselves, often we receive little education of value when they approach education in a one-size-fits-all mode.

Exclusivity is the motto of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) and we don't really need another organization that promotes they are the only organization to legally serve people with diabetes education. The AND organization also tried to limit freedom of speech about nutrition and criminalize people not in their membership writing about nutrition and teaching nutrition in North Carolina and Ohio.