Research Description
People who are in prisons do not have much control over managing their own diabetes. When they are released from prison and enter the community (usually in supervised transition housing), they have to learn to take care of themselves again, including taking their medications, using insulin, checking their blood sugar, healthy eating, and coping with stress. During this move, it is difficult to provide diabetes education and support to people due to multiple housing locations across the state systems, a desire for anonymity when participating in programs, and limited access to clinical care. The Diabetes Learning in Virtual Environments Just In time for Community reEntry (Diabetes LIVE JustICE) program will provide access to a virtual app on participants’ phones for diabetes education and support. This app will include real-time sessions with diabetes educators and peers using avatars in the virtual space to protect privacy. Games in the app can help people learn as they play. The effect of using the app on knowledge about diabetes care, stress about diabetes, and confidence in managing diabetes will be measured for 3 months of app use. Diabetes health will also be measured (A1c). The goal of the project is to bring virtual diabetes education and support to people moving out of prison into communities in a way that makes it easy to find and use, and impacts the health of people who are often not reached by our healthcare systems.Research Profile
What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes?Diabetes learning in a virtual environment just in time for community reentry (Diabetes LIVE JustICE) focuses on diabetes self-management education and support to enhance health equity among persons living with diabetes after release from incarceration. By providing just in time accessible DSMES using a remotely delivered virtual intervention during the critical transition from prison to the community, we can prevent diabetes-related morbidity and mortality among these returning citizens living with diabetes and improve clinical outcomes through enhanced engagement in their diabetes self-care.
If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?The project aims to bring virtual diabetes education and support to people moving out of prison into communities in a way that makes it easy to find and use and impacts the health of people who are often not reached by our healthcare systems. The project results will inform research in the area of Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES)for persons with a history of incarceration living with diabetes. My research has the potential to serve as a national model of diabetes care to improve access to DSMES for persons transitioning to the community from prisons or for other underserved people living with diabetes across the nation.
Why important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play?My interests in diabetes and chronic illness self-care management and diabetes education and support grew from my experience as an advanced practice registered nurse in an urban primary care practice working with persons living with diabetes who carry a high burden of health disparities and often experienced preventable diabetes-related complications and subsequent poor clinical outcomes. The ADA’s Health Disparities and Diabetes Research Innovative Clinical or Translational Science Award will support advancing my research that impacts access to a time-sensitive, culturally, and linguistically appropriate model of diabetes education and support for persons living with diabetes and experiencing a critical transition in their diabetes care.
In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?Diabetes research will continue to impact the health and well-being of persons living with diabetes while incorporating a more holistic approach to enhancing health equity, diversity, and inclusion. Future research in diabetes self-management education and support should aim to develop innovative, interactive, and user-friendly technology that is embraced and used by all members of society living with diabetes.