you need in order to manage your diabetes. If you are not able to afford your needles or your strips or if there are any needs with housing or any other stresses we would be happy to deal with that," she assured participants at a recent workshop.
Currently there are group sessions Tuesday mornings from 10 to 12 noon and Thursday afternoons from 1:00 to 3:00 o'clock. There are six-week long classes that focus on different parts of diabetes. One-on-one counselling sessions are also provided.
The Ontario Government launched a social marketing campaign titled "Let's make Diabetes History" to raise awareness of the disease in the African/Caribbean community. As part of this initiative Taibu is collaborating with Toronto Public Health and the Rexdale Community Health Centre to raise awareness of Type II diabetes. Minister of Health Promotion and Sport Margarett Best announced recently screening and programmes aimed at improving health outcomes are some of the services being provided.
Liben Gabre Mikael, the Center's executive director said his staff is working with people in the community and tailoring programmes to suit their needs. He believes there is a need but it is important to engage the community before starting programmes. This way their needs could be identified.
"How they want the programme to be structured and delivered, where they want the programme to be, I think people will be ready to be engaged. But if we go in and say 'we have this programme, come into the programme', some may come because they see that it is beneficial for them while a lot of people might not be engaged.," he emphasized.
Kathy Nelson, registered nurse who founded the Caribbean Diabetes Chapter 12 years ago said there are lots of risk factors associated with developing diabetes. Nothing can be done about some of the risk factors. "Your race is very important. It (diabetes) is more prevalent among Blacks, South Asians, Chinese people and Spanish speaking people. Weight is another concern. People who have weight around the waist are the ones that are at very high risk for developing Type II diabetes. They get what we call insulin resistance."
Taibu is working with male seniors and engaging them to understand the challenges they are facing. The starting point is an assessment, which hopefully would offer participants a sense of ownership so they would be more engaged in continuing to participate.
Taibu is facilitating by providing space and any resources that are required, including inviting some guests if necessary, to talk about specific concerns. "If it is a health issue, if they want to talk about blood pressure then we can ask our nurse or our doctor to come in and talk to them about blood pressure. If it is nutrition then we can have our nutritionist come. So we give them the opportunity to engage with us at their level and they are always in control," Mikael said.
"Malvern ten million steps" is a huge walking project launched in June as part of its diabetes prevention initiative. It is designed to engage the community and encourage walking either individually or as a group. It has a target of ten million steps and Mikael wants to see how fast the ten million steps would be reached. Residents of Malvern can join the venture by registering on the center's special website.
"As a community we want to see how soon we are going to reach ten million steps. Then we will start again. This is a campaign to encourage people to begin walking in the community so we are involved with public health, community organizations, resident groups. So we are trying to promote walking as an exercise and as a healthy lifestyle."

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