Coping with diabetes project, Hackney Diabetes Centre

The City and Hackney Primary Care Trust area has one of the most diverse populations in the UK. It has a very diverse ethnic mix and many community languages. ‘Coping with Diabetes’ is a Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) funded project based at the Hackney Diabetes Centre which aims to empower and educate people with diabetes and at risk of diabetes from ethnic minority and vulnerable groups. The project has implemented many group education sessions, has been present at health fairs, and has produced an audio CD, patient held records, educational leaflets and a website to enable not just the project workers, but the whole Primary Care Trust to reach out to communities who are at risk of diabetes and to people with diabetes who do not have English as a first language. The project has so far been running for six months and over 1000 people have been screened for diabetes, over 30 educational groups have been run, an audio CD in Turkish has been produced and 800 copies have been distributed to GPs and patients. Patient held records for 7500 patients are being printed, a website has been produced and a script for a DVD is currently being designed. Hackney Diabetes Centre is making real in‐roads into meeting targets 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Diabetes National Service Framework, in a diverse and hard to reach population. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.