Diabetes workshop coming to Odessa in Sept./October

Odessa Memorial Healthcare Center and Lincoln Hospital are pleased to be facilitating “Living Well with Diabetes,” a 6-week workshop developed by Stanford University to help individuals who have diabetes manage their symptoms and improve the quality of their lives.

This evidence-based series teaches skills critical to managing diabetes such as: creating healthy food plans, monitoring blood sugar and preventing low blood sugar, preventing complications of diabetes, safe physical activity, stress management and relaxation techniques, improving communication, managing medications, working with health care providers and goal-setting and problem-solving.

This workshop is for people with type-2 diabetes and pre-diabetes. Family members, friends and caregivers are also encouraged to enroll. In this six-week series, participants learn and get to practice the skills needed in the day-to-day management of diabetes and to maintain and/or increase life’s activities. Participants get to build skills, try out new ways of doing things in a safe environment and in the process find out what works for them. Much of the learning comes from sharing and helping others with similar challenges.

Each weekly session lasts 2 ½ hours and will be on Wednesdays from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the Old Town Hall following Senior Meals, with the class running from September 19 through October 24. There is no charge for the workshop.

The workshop is facilitated by two leaders who are both registered nurses and have personal experience with diabetes or care of someone with diabetes. Class size is limited and registration is required. Please register by calling Diana Finkbeiner at Odessa Memorial Healthcare Center at 509-982-2611 extension 152, or Colleen Hurt at Lincoln Hospital at 509-725-9912.