Closing the healthcare gap through a community partnership designed to address cultural, social, and educational needs of the local community: The Saint Luke's Foundation (SLF) and the MetroHealth Buckeye Health Center (MHBHC) Diabetes Self-management and Education Program (DSME)

Statistics show that 3.2 million (13%) African Americans aged 20 years or older have diabetes mellitus. They lack access to appropriate education and effective treatment options due to misinformation, limited finances, and inadequate health care coverage. Resources are poor, their environment is unsupportive, and they seldom receive enough contact with health professionals trained to assist diabetic patients in managing their condition. Research supports the use of intensive DSME to improve blood glucose control, reducing the risk of death or disability. The MHBHC and the SLF formed a partnership with a local community in Cleveland, Ohio to develop a program that moves beyond diabetes management in the clinical setting. The program provides 6-weeks of hands-on education, coaching, incentives, and long-term follow-up to assess for a change in knowledge, attitude, behavior, lifestyle, and improvement of overall health status. Healthy shopping and cooking demonstrations, simple movement for exercise, transportation, social support, and outings provided extra motivation to incorporate change. We enrolled 116 participants with a mean age of 58 years; 75% were women. The average baseline hemoglobin A1c dropped from 8.3 to 6.9 after 6 months for 88 Participants and remained at 7.0 for up to 12 months for patients who completed the program. Bp and cholesterol levels dropped as well. As a result, this model for partnership in community health intervention has a measurable impact on the health of the members of this community. We plan to use these findings to enhance the program to expand our reach further into the community.