Conference to focus on diabetes issues

Southern Seven Health Department, in collaboration with the Diabetes Today Resource Team, is planning to host a diabetes conference on Thursday evening, March 30.

The conference is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Shawnee Community College near Ullin.

The conference will address the topics of Type 1 and Type II diabetes.

Conference registration is free. A light dinner will be served at 4:45 p.m. The conference and education portion are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.  

Organizers noted that nursing CEUs, as well as certificates of attendance, will be issued at the closing.  

Presenters/panelists are scheduled to include Dr. Tanya Vargas, a pediatrician at Community Health and Emergency Services Inc., CHESI; Dr. Varadendra Panchamukhi, with Prairie Cardiovascular; and Sherrie Crabb, executive director of Family Counseling Inc. 

Organizers of the conference shared in a news release that the seven southernmost counties in Illinois continue to show higher rates of diabetes, chronic diseases and risk factors than most other counties in Illinois.  

Through health education programming and outreaches, Southern Seven works to educate the communities it serves about the importance of lifestyle changes in order to reduce these higher rates.  

Southern Seven collaborates with Southern Illinois Healthcare and the Jackson County Health Department.

They have joined to form the Diabetes Today Resource Team, DTRT. 

The DTRT is made up of individuals who are interested in decreasing the incidence of diabetes and assisting in the management of diabetes by strengthening diabetes education and prevention.  

The DTRT is part of a regional partnership through the Healthy Southern Illinois Delta Network to address diabetes in the lower 15 counties of Illinois.

Those who want to attend the conference are asked to register by March 20.

To register, or for more information call Cheryl Manus at 618-634-2297, extension 112. Registration also is available online at www.southern7.org.