WVDHHR > Division of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease > Focus Areas > Diabetes

Partners

Marshall University Center for Rural Health

The Robert C. Byrd Center for Rural Health serves as the base for Marshall University’s rural medicine outreach programs which directly affect more than half of West Virginia’s counties.

Self Management Resources and Support

The Marshall University Center for Rural Health offers chronic disease self management resources and support to an expanding network of rural health centers, churches and community organizations. Marshall’s self management focus is helping organizations develop programs and support for people to experience the benefit of taking control of their diabetes and other chronic diseases. Marshall offers partner organizations the following services:

technical assistance in self management program planning, implementation, delivery and evaluation

continuing professional education in diabetes care

education and training in evidence-based programs

self-management material development and dissemination

Marshall University provides technical assistance to organization administrators, program coordinators and community leaders as they develop and carry out concrete plans to promote self management within their organizations and communities.

The Certified Diabetes Educator on the team conducts continuing education, especially in rural health centers that have limited access to professional education.

The Marshall team members are all trained as Master Trainers in the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP). They assist partners with planning, implementation, and evaluation of this evidence based program. They train program leaders and help organizations integrate self management into their services.

The Marshall team has developed a social marketing and behavior change program around the messages of:

Balance Your Plate

Choose to Move

Kick the Habit

This program promotes self management based on a readiness to change social theory and helps engage people at a level that fits their level of interest. A variety of other interactive materials have been developed to convey key self management messages and to promote skills building. Some of the titles are: Love Your Feet, Sick Day Management, A1c, and flu and pneumonia.

The intended result is that people with chronic diseases enjoy a higher quality of life by taking more active reasonability for self-management.

View Marshall University's presentations from the CDC Division of Diabetes Translation Conference, May 2007.