National Diabetes Month: November 2020

Individuals with a disability are at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people without a disability. In honor of National Diabetes Awareness Month, the New York State Disability and Health Program has curated resources that both individuals and organizations may find useful to help prevent type 2 diabetes.

Many people develop a condition called prediabetes before they are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

How can someone know if they are at risk for diabetes or prediabetes?

Take a simple online test to assess risk and find information on how to reverse prediabetes.

 https://www.cdc.gov/prediabetes/takethetest/

The National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) and Diabetes Self-Management Education (DSME) are covered benefits for New Yorkers with Medicaid. For more details check out this new one-page face sheet developed by NYS Medicaid: https://www.health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/fact_sheets/docs/diabetes/english.pdf

Joining the National Diabetes Prevention Program is one of the best ways to reverse prediabetes. The New York State Association of Independent Living Centers has partnered with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors to offer the National Diabetes Prevention Program to New Yorkers with Disabilities. For more information and to find a program near you visit https://ilny.us/programs/diabetes-prevention-program.

Physical activity and healthy eating habits can help reduce a person’s risk of developing prediabetes and diabetes. The NYS Disability and Health Program has curated a list of virtual physical activity programs adapted for people of all ability levels:

• The National Center on Health Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD) offers an Inclusive Home Workout Toolkit that includes 32 virtual options for physical activity,

• Move United provides dozens of live and recorded adaptive fitness classes that can be accessed from home: www.moveunitedsport.org/adaptathome/
• Special Olympics offers the School of Strength, a whole new way to exercise that offers three levels of videos for beginners to master athletes.

For full information please click:  https://www.specialolympics.org/school-of-strength

• Adapt to Perform – Ben Clark is a YouTuber that has created video workouts adaptive for people with mobility disabilities.
  You can find these videos at Adapt to Perform's YouTube Channel
• New York City Parks Adaptive Workouts – are available on Twitter and Facebook
  • https://twitter.com/NYCParks/status/1254836558043189250 and https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=253423152520948
•