November is National Diabetes Month
Each November the National Heat Lung and Blood Institute promotes National Diabetes Month. The focus for this year is linking diabetes to heart disease. Now is a good time for your rural hospital to do educational outreach to the community and to make them aware of your related services.
According to the Southwest Rural Health Research Center “Diabetes prevalence is approximately 17 percent higher in rural areas than urban areas, with previous studies (also) showing that rural adults were more likely to report a diagnosis of diabetes than urban adults.” Rural Americans also suffer from higher rates of heart disease and stroke. These are health topics vital to the health of your community.
Teaching the connection
Adults diagnosed with diabetes are twice as likely to die from stroke and heart disease as those without it. The excessive glucose levels damage the blood vessels and the nerves that regulate heart function. For these reasons, diabetes prevention is intrinsically linked to preventing cardiovascular disease.
Of course, even for those with diabetes, there is a great deal they can do to lower their risks. Proper management of diabetes is a good start. Fighting the other risk factors for heart disease which are common in rural communities is another.
Delivering clear and actionable information to the members of your community can go a long way to helping them achieve better health. Ideally, you want to connect with the community face to face to teach and answer questions about diabetes and heart disease.
A focus on risk factors
The risk factors for diabetes and heart disease cover a lot of ground. This means there are ample opportunities to connect your hospitals’ health services with National Diabetes Month this November.
Diet and Exercise are among the most significant risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. There are also a number of personal risk factors from family history, poly-cystic ovaries, abnormal cholesterol, and others.
For heart disease, you can also focus your promotion on efforts to quit smoking, management of cholesterol, or blood pressure testing and treatment.
Seek out local partners
Consider all the risk factors and think about other popular local businesses or services that you could partner with for promotion and education. Restaurants that promote healthy eating or a local gym could make great partners for pairing medical information with a means for better diet and exercise.
You could create a genealogy workshop at the local library. This would be a chance for people to discover more about their family’s medical history while you share vital health information. Any opportunity to bring your expertise out of the hospital and into the community goes a long way to building awareness of your brand and services.
All these events can be promoted using social media, press releases, or local advertising.
Don’t Wait
Now is the time to get started with planning your outreach. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to care for your community and build awareness of your healthcare services.