HealthReach Clinic in Mooresville, the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson and the Solomon House of Huntersville are teaming up to provide free services to local residents as part of the Lake Norman Diabetes Prevention Program.
Ada Jenkins, which provides health and family services, was awarded a grant from the North Carolina Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities and will providing free workshops throughout the community with the help of Solomon House and HealthReach.
"With diabetes, prevention is best," said community health nurse Julie Elliott with Ada Jenkins. "If we catch it early enough, we can modify your lifestyle and prevent long-term complications, which makes a huge impact on the results and outcome of the disease."
According to the American Diabetes Association, 23.6 million children and adults in the United States, or 7.8 percent of the population, have diabetes. There are 5.7 million people who are undiagnosed and 57 million people are pre-diabetics.
"Each year, we see an increased occurrence of diabetes diagnoses in patients of our free clinic," said Georgia Krueger, executive director of the Ada Jenkins Center in a press release about the new program.
"This program is an attempt to get ahead of the curve -- to help people identify their risk for diabetes and address the issue early. This program is targeted toward minority populations since minorities are disproportionally affected by diabetes in our community."
"We're trying to target Hispanics and African-Americans who are at high risk for diabetes," said Natisha Rivera, Development Director for Ada Jenkins.
According to the American Diabetes Association, 11.8 percent of the African-American population is diabetic, while that percentage is 10.4 for Hispanics.
Health fairs will be set up on a monthly basis throughout six communities, including Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, Mooresville, Mt. Mourne and Troutman.
"There will be two workshops each month in each city that will set up for a few hours and we invite the public to come for free and learn more about diabetes," said Regan Brown, PR consultant for Ada Jenkins.
Upcoming events
*12-2 p.m. July 24: Greater Salem at the Lake, 16601 Old Statesville Road, Huntersville.
*7-8:30 p.m. Aug. 19: New Birth of Charlotte Worship, 11901 Sam Furr Road, Huntersville.
*12-2 p.m. Aug. 21: New Life Missionary Baptist Church, 571 South Main St., Troutman.
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