Under the Umbrella: The North Carolina Diabetes Education Recognition Program

The mission of the NCDERP is to provide quality comprehensive Diabetes Self Management Education (DSME) to empower persons with diabetes. The purpose is to increase access across the state for people with diabetes to get needed self-management training, while providing a mechanism for reimbursement to local health departments (LHDs). The program addresses health disparities with particular emphasis on poor, rural counties with high rates of diabetes. NC is the first to develop a statewide ‘umbrella' program where the Division of Public Health serves as the sponsoring agency and brings on the health departments as ‘multi sites' under the umbrella. As of Dec 2010, the LHDs participating in the program have provided DSME to 2,332 persons with diabetes. There are 2 program goals. One is to have 75% of participants report they are checking their feet daily and have 75% of participants with an A1c of 7.0% or less upon completion of the program. As of December, 2010, 85% of participants report checking their feet daily, and 62% have an A1c of 7.0% or less. The program has increased from 5 LHDs to currently working with 36 LHDs covering 40 counties and a total of 56 service delivery sites. This is largest ADA recognized program in the nation.