Goal: Promote awareness of the language of diabetes and understand risk factors for diabetes
Possible Action Steps
Together, review key diabetes words and terms (high blood glucose, hypoglycemia, carbohydrate, know your blood glucose numbers, blood pressure, etc).
Discuss what it means when people talk about the risk factors for diabetes
Discuss genetic/family predispositions for diabetes. Identify family members/other relatives that have or have had diabetes.
Discuss lifestyle/behavior risks for diabetes
Together, review diabetes flashcards and find out what the individual already knows about diabetes. Start to become familiar with the unfamiliar aspects of diabetes.
Goal: Improve self awareness around diabetes symptoms and what might contribute to times when they feel poorly
Possible Action Steps
Discuss any health problems and unpleasant symptoms the individual may be experiencing. What might be bringing on these problems/symptoms?
Create a plan to track when they feel poorly and what they were doing that may have brought this on. Learn to identify the cause/source of diabetes-related symptoms
Goal: Begin to self-monitor blood glucose (if prescribed by a doctor), as well as the behaviors that influence blood glucose control
Possible Action Steps
Discuss individual's behavior/lifestyle risk factors for diabetes (overweight, inactive, tobacco use, dietary imbalance, high blood fat/cholesterol level)
Discuss why A1c is so important; learn about a simple method to record/track A1c levels over time
If prescribed/recommended by their doctor, discuss buying a blood glucose monitor and learning how to use it
Discuss self-monitoring blood glucose level at least twice in a week; record blood glucose levels using a tracking tool (options below under resources)
Discuss self-monitoring weight at least once a week; record weight using a tracking tool. Compare actual weight to target weight
Encourage individual to ask doctor about current A1c, LDL and blood pressure numbers; ask doctor what these numbers should be; write down the actual and target blood pressure numbers