Too Sweet? Health Committee talks Diabetes.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 APS’ Health Committee brought to the East Los Angeles community a diabetes information session. Diabetes is a disease that affects many Americans in this country and the prevention and awareness of it is vital to our communities well being.
Traditionally awareness and basic knowledge of the problems and complications surrounding Diabetes are usually not well disseminated
throughout our communities who are in desperate need of such information. It is for this reason that APS’ Health Committee took it upon itself to present a diabetes information session to the historically impoverished community of East Los Angeles. Additionally, the health committee catered to the predominant Latino community of the area by making their entire presentation and materials completely in Spanish.
The Presentation discussed diabetes in general; what it is, its symptoms and complications, what risks exist, and most importantly, how to prevent oneself from contracting diabetes. The presentation included a variety of visual aids which were used to emphasize the importance of controlling and monitoring the sugar content of particular unhealthy foods. After the presentation the attendees were given a blood glucose test to obtain a screening of their current glucose level.
Over 130 community members attended this presentation and about 80% of them took advantage of the free blood glucose test.
“I didn’t know how much I put my kids at risk just by the choices of foods and goods I buy for them, very eye opening” said Maricela Hernandez a participant of the event.
Ana Villarruel, Chair of the Health Committee stated “our hope is to try and get this information out for everyone to know, and so everyone could take the proper steps to prevent it (Diabetes) or know how to treat it.”
This is not the first presentation of its kind in which the Health Committee has taken steps to bring awareness of prevalent health issues to the Latino Community and it certainly won’t be the last.
