New videos, website offer important resources for people affected by diabetes

The video series is the latest addition to NDEP’s offerings in lifestyle change. The videos are being released to coincide with the redesign of NDEP’s online library of behavior change resources, Diabetes HealthSense. Diabetes HealthSense provides users with a searchable database of research, tools, and programs to address the wide array of psychosocial and lifestyle-change challenges associated with diabetes self-management. Resources included in Diabetes HealthSense have been reviewed by a team of leading independent experts on psychosocial issues with specific expertise in the science of behavior change.

“For more than 14 years, the NDEP has been in the forefront of raising awareness about diabetes, but more needs to be done to provide resources and tools to support health care providers and their patients when it comes to achieving and sustaining health goals,” said Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health, one of the sponsors of NDEP.

Visitors to the Diabetes HealthSense site can view videos featuring expert professionals who are volunteers to NDEP — as well as people living with diabetes or working to prevent type 2 diabetes — about setting goals and making lifestyle changes. Initial videos (with more in the series to follow) include the following topics:

• setting goals to improve your health
• managing type 2 diabetes
• living with type 2 diabetes: finding the support you need
• preventing type 2 diabetes
• maintaining a healthy weight
• practical tips and action steps: physical activity

Additionally, visitors can choose what they’d like help with, such as how to cope with stress and emotions, eat healthy, or be active. They can also utilize tracking tools for calories or physical activity, or online programs to help them manage their weight or stop smoking.

“It’s common to feel overwhelmed, sad, or angry when you are living with a chronic disease such as diabetes,” said NDEP’s executive committee chair and certified diabetes educator Martha M. Funnell, M.S., R.N. “A person may know what to do to improve their health, but figuring out how to do it can be one of the biggest challenges. For example, people know that being physically active can help them lose weight. But do they know how to take the necessary steps to become more physically active and keep it up over time?”

Diabetes HealthSense includes links to tools and programs to help people set goals and find ways to deal with the stress and emotions that can prevent a person from achieving their goals — whether they have diabetes or are at risk for the disease.

Provided by National Institutes of Health