I seriously doubt this. Why? Because
there are too few Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs) to effectively
do this. Plus, there are too few CDEs in largely rural areas of the
USA to serve the needs of these people without using telemedicine,
which CDEs are presently refusing to use. Yes, reimbursement is a
problem, but they even refuse to investigate or advocate further.
Linda Siminerio, RN, PhD, CDE is
speaking about where she works, “I work at the University of
Pittsburgh Medical Center. I am a diabetes educator and I do
research in healthcare delivery systems. I am very excited to be at
this meeting, where I was fortunate enough to be a part of developing
a position statement on diabetes self-management education for people
with type 2 diabetes. The American Diabetes Association, the
American Association of Diabetes Educators, and the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics jointly published this position statement.
We are very excited about this position statement because it presents
all of the evidence that we have of the benefits of diabetes
self-management education for people with type 2 diabetes.”
She continues that they know from the
literature that diabetes self-management education works. I find
that what I have been writing about the lack of diabetes education is
echoed by her and she uses the term abysmally low. Yes, recent
reports say that Medicare participants are only about 4 percent and
for commercially insured is at a 6.8 percent. This means that the
CDEs are not doing their job and providing diabetes self-management
education to those needing education.
I am not surprised at another statement
she makes. She says that the referral rate is particularly poor. In
order for patients to receive self-management education from a
trained professional, they have to have a referral from a physician.
She does try to avoid the true reasons for poor referrals, by saying
physicians are too busy. To this I would add that the mantras and
mandates by many CDEs have caused physicians to lose trust in the
CDEs. Many CDEs openly contradict what the doctor says and feel
their mandates are more important than what a doctor says.
Please read my blog here about the
reason I don't think there are enough CDEs to accomplish the goals
put forth in the joint statement. Also consider why
I don't think the ACDE professional group will be much help by
opposing doctors training other people with diabetes to be peer
mentors or peer to peer workers.
Then this blog about a Canadian study
proving group diabetes education helps more than individual
education. And the last blog I suggest is this one about the
leadership of the AADE and a program I have not heard any more about
for training people with diabetes to help other people with diabetes.
Apparently the idea has lost favor among members of the AADE because
of pressure from the ACDE.
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