spotlight : Diabetes Foot Center Group
“[a patient] called one day from Belize and said, ‘Hey Doc, a bone fell out of my foot this morning. It didn’t hurt at all.’ And I thought to myself, you know, this really isn’t okay. It’s almost . . . Frankenstein-ish. But it doesn’t raise any real alarm. That tells me a lot about where things are, when people are kind of . . . used to it.” -Dr. wells, nyc
A physician from the Diabetes Foot Care Group bandaging a woman’s diabetes ulcer as part of foot care in Belize.
preventing amputations through community training in diabetes foot care
In countries like Belize, where there is no podiatrist, community health workers often find themselves at the front lines of Diabetes Foot Care. The Diabetes Foot Care Group is working to expand expertise for this next generations of nurses and caregivers, collaborating with the Belize Ministry of Health, the Nursing Council, and numerous branches of the Belize Diabetes Association. The New York-based Group also travels across the Caribbean to help catalyze Diabetes Foot Care training. Working with partners in Grenada, one recent initiative focuses on providing diabetes awareness training to nail and beauty shop technicians, so that they can detect warning signs and refer their clients to the hospital if their hands or feet are in danger.