The Diabetes Empowerment Education Program
In undertaking the task of delivering community education, the Midwest Latino Health Research, Training and Policy Center (MLHRC) has developed various curricula and educational materials on different topics. One of these efforts, the Diabetes Empowerment Education Program (DEEP) has been very successful in addressing the needs of the Hispanic/Latino community and is currently replicated in different parts of the country.
Since 1996, diabetes has been a central focus for the MLHRC. In 1997, the MLHRC began replicating a diabetes education model that was developed and evaluated by Latino Health Access, Inc. (LHA) from Santa Ana , California . This replication was undertaken in partnership with LHA with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Diabetes Translation. This model utilizes trained community health workers, many of them living with type 2 diabetes, as diabetes educators.
The MLHRC has built upon the LHA model by developing and adapting curricula and guides designed for use by health promoters and practitioners. These were tested among Hispanic/Latino and African American populations and evolved into DEEP. The DEEP program resulted from MLHRC's collaboration with Alivio Medical Center , Mile Square Health Center , Norwegian American Hospital , and Sinai Family Health Centers . With funding from the National Eye Institute these activities were expanded to include diabetes eye care.
For more on DEEP, please click here.