District Cabinet Meeting - Sunday, October 17, 2021
Diabetes Committee Report

• The Diabetes Committee met on 9/23/21.

• Prior to this meeting I received an update from committee member Mary Stanek. She reported that clubs in her area have not been meeting due to COVID and therefore have not been able to promote diabetes awareness. They just started meeting again so hopefully they will be moving forward with diabetes related events. She will be reaching out to Liz Shelley for new/updated diabetes related flyers to put together packets. She is going to go to the local grocery store and see if baggers will be able to pre-put these in grocery bags as they do grocery flyers, to reduce risk of COVID transmission by having actual events. She also plans on setting up the diabetes display at upcoming Lions meetings in her district as well. We thank her for ANY diabetes related efforts!

• Additional suggestions that we are researching: Fold-over cards for patients to keep in their wallets with medications written on them. Winnie is going to reach out to Liz Shelley to see if she has access to any. If not I will follow up. There are several options out there. We could provide these to clubs to distribute. Follow up at the next meeting. (Not for immediate action).

• Winnie has had several people come to her with concerns about how to properly dispose of sharps (lancets and insulin pens/needles). Red sharps containers are available for purchase at pharmacies but are not to my knowledge a reimbursable or insurance-covered expense. Also, these are generally pretty small and would fill up rather quickly. Medical offices in her area do not allow patients to bring in full containers. There is a cost to dispose of sharps. In our area, at least with UW Health, patients are encouraged to bring their full sharps containers to their local doctors office for disposal, at no cost to the patient. The committee is going to take this on also for future service projects, but clubs can be encouraged at least for the time being to do the following: Offer a collection spot, perhaps where recycled glasses containers are, for large, heavy duty laundry/dishwasher detergent containers. These need to be heavy plastic, preferably with the lid. These hold significantly more sharps than a red biohazard container. I will work on finding options for disposal. It is likely going to vary by area but if anyone on your diabetes committee wants to reach out to local providers (clinics/pharmacies/EMS providers) in their area to find out if they accept used sharps for disposal that would be highly encouraged. I hope to have more information at the next cabinet meeting, or maybe sooner.

Diabetes Awareness Month-November
We were so pleased with all the efforts at raising awareness for diabetes 2 years ago when there was a contest that our district won. To continue that spirit the Diabetes Committee is announcing a DIABETES SERVICE PROJECT CONTEST!!! Running through the month of November, (I plan to have more details to announce at the meeting), we encourage clubs to have at least 1 service project/event/facebook post, etc to get the word out to your communities about diabetes. This can be prediabetes related or anything pertaining to diabetes. Whichever club has the most events (people served/Lion man hours) will win $50 to use toward diabetes awareness in their club. If multiple clubs have the same number of events we will either give out multiple awards or draw (for example, one award for man hours, one award for people served). Remember, these can be as simple as posting diabetes tips on your websites or facebook pages.

Diabetes Prevention Program update: Mt. Horeb Lions
More information will be highlighted in person during the meeting.
1 year (complete in early November): 5 attendees.
Second cohort-STILL TIME TO ENROLL. STARTS MONDAY 10/18/21 via ZOOM. 7-8 pm
(attendees could still enroll up to the first 3 wks-after that make up sessions will not be available). Weekly for approx 6 months; followed by biweekly/monthly for the following 6 months. Attendees receive digital scale, curriculum binder, tracking notebook, and better health. Please follow trollwaydiabetes.org or Mt. Horeb Lions for announcements and updates.

This is what we are going to do to put 27 D-1 on the DIABETES IMPACT MAP!! HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE MEETING TO SHARE MORE! I WILL ALSO BE ATTENDING THE REGION MEETINGS WITH THESE UPDATES AS WELL SO WE CAN SPREAD THE WORD.

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