I had a great conversation last week with a former coworker. She is now in medical school and is volunteering her time (can’t imagine that she has much!) at a free medical clinic west of Chicago. There, she uses the diabetes Conversation Map tools to provide education to the uninsured.
It got me thinking about the various practice settings where many of you successfully utilize the Maps.
I speak to so many of you who want to use the Conversation Map tools, but often are unable to do so in your current positions. Maybe you are an administrator or don’t currently work in diabetes education. I often suggest that you volunteer to do a Map session in your community, maybe at a Salvation Army location, or in a health clinic targeting the underserved.
There are others of you that use the Maps on a regular basis for DSME or support group in your hospital or practice, but are anxious to “get out” into the community and use the tools elsewhere.
For those of you looking for a change of venue, I would suggest contacting one of the free medical clinics in your community. I looked up my town in this database and found that there is a free clinic only a mile from my home. Contact phone numbers and emails are usually listed.
The Conversation Map tools are great for so many applications, especially when targeting underserved/uninsured populations. Read the results of preliminary research from Renal and Urology News on the benefits of using the Maps with an underserved population. The research shows that patients who participated in Conversation Map sessions were more likely to undergo screenings for diabetes complications and their clinical outcomes were improved. I am happy, and not at all surprised, about the positive health outcomes in this group.
I know many of you use the Maps in a community based setting, often on a volunteer basis. Do you see similar results?
We volunteer to help others but often find that in the end that we are the true beneficiaries. My most recent volunteer experience was with a girls youth group in my community. I was there to act as a resource for healthy eating for the teens and pre-teens attending a daylong outdoor session on health. As I was standing side-by-side with the girls preparing fruit smoothies, I was surprised at their kindness and compassion for each other, and their desire to educate their peers on healthy lifestyle behaviors. I was there as the “the expert,” but of course it was the teens providing advice to the younger girls, on topics ranging from carbohydrate counting for an insulin pump, to the benefits of eating breakfast!
Please share your stories of volunteerism, and share the positive outcomes that it provided, not just for your community, but for you as well.
Cathy