Bedford diabetes initiative begins

Millions of people in the United States have no idea they are living with diabetes. Martie Slaughter wants to make sure fewer of them have a Bedford-area address.

The diabetes educator and retired U.S. Navy officer is steering a diabetes management program on the campus of Bedford Memorial Hospital on Oakwood Street in Bedford.

The new program started last Monday and serves as an expansion of one in place at the Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, said Slaughter, a registered dietician in Bedford’s hospital.

The goal is to keep diabetes patients in the Bedford area from commuting to Roanoke and Lynchburg, she said. BMH will work closely with them to help communicate with primary care providers.

“We have not had this service in the Bedford community for some time and it is quite needed,” said Slaughter, who has lived in Bedford for nearly 30 years. “We want to make it as convenient as possible for our patients. It’s rather daunting to drive to Roanoke or Lynchburg.”

 The diabetes team will work with individuals on weight loss and exercise, nutrition and blood glucose monitoring, medication use, goals for self-management, communication with care providers and coping with or preventing acute or chronic complications.

More than 530,000 adults in Virginia, close to 9 percent, have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 35 percent of adults age 20 or older and 50 percent of adults 65 and older have pre-diabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not enough to be classified as diabetes.

Nearly 6 million people in the United States have undiagnosed diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. Slaughter uses the word “epidemic” in describing the disease and its impact.

“Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires day-to-day management by the individual,” she said, adding it can be “very, very overwhelming” to deal with.

Slaughter was a captain in the Medical Service Corps of the Navy. She worked in a program for diabetes at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., when it was known as the National Navy Medical Center.

“That’s where I really got the passion,” she said of the fight against diabetes. “It’s very satisfying to be able to help people.”

Area physicians are excited the new program has arrived in Bedford, Slaughter said. Since retiring from the Navy in 2010, she has been working to make it a reality in Bedford.

The program emphasizes seven behaviors identified by the American Association of Diabetes Educators: healthy eating, active lifestyle, taking medication, monitoring blood glucose levels, reducing risks, problem solving and healthy coping skills. The aim is to help arm those living with diabetes with skills to help them “take charge” of their health, she said.

She stressed that people with diabetes know their “ABCs,” which correlate to A1C tests for recent blood glucose levels, blood pressure and cholesterol.

“It’s an opportunity to augment the primary care provider so we can get better outcomes,” Slaughter said of the new program. “If we don’t turn things around, the epidemic is going to increase more dramatically.”