First UAE diabetes centre for children opens

CENTRE BOOST: The new education initiative will help young sufferers cope with diabetes, including the use of insulin. (Getty Images)

The first juvenile diabetes education centre in the UAE was opened on Tuesday within healthcare city in Dubai.

This centre, located in the Johnson and Johnson Middle East building, has been launched to help children and their families in managing diabetes on a daily basis at home and at school.

The centre is an initiative run by Emirates Diabetes Society (EDS) in partnership with Johnson and Johnson Corporate Citizenship Trust (Middle East branch).

The project was prompted by the lack of diabetes management awareness among patients, parents, school administrators and even some of the medical staff dealing with children in the UAE.

Healthcare professionals also said they were overwhelmed by the number of diabetic patients.

Abdulrazzaq Al Madani, chairman of the Emirates Diabetes Society, said: “Diabetes is a priority health concern in the UAE. And it is particularly difficult for children.

"We believe that education on how to deal with diabetes for these patients but also for those around them plays a key role in allowing them to develop healthy habits, prevent long term complications and provide them with a chance to fulfill their dreams without limitations."

The centre will provide a variety of services including one-on-one counselling and education for young people and their families, group lectures related to diet, exercise, dental health and psycho-social support, social activities as well as school diabetes awareness and education programmes.

A key role of the centre will be to ensure training for school teaching staff as well as nurses on diabetes management for children.

Wim Boogaerts, chairman of the Johnson and Johnson Corporate Citizenship Trust Middle East, added: “One of the key strategies of the Trust is to support healthcare capacity building in response to the needs of the local communities.

"These nurses who will become diabetes educators will be able to help these children and their families to deal with and live a healthy and happy life with diabetes."

The non-profit counselling and education initiative will be supported by the Johnson and Johnson Citizenship Trust Middle East for the next three years in partnership with EDS.

The project is designed in two phases with an initial focus on providing assistance to children, families and the school teaching personnel.

In a second stage, an internship programme will be set up with local nursing schools to train newly graduated nurses on diabetes management.

The centre will be managed by an executive board comprised of representatives from the EDS and the centre.

An assessment of the impact of education and counselling over a sample of 100-200 patients will also be carried out two years after the centre starts operations.

According to the latest data from the International Diabetes Federation, diabetes prevalence in the UAE is estimated to be as high as one in five, the second highest worldwide.

The World Health Organisation warned that diabetes could affect 70 percent of UAE residents.

A recent health survey also indicated that at least six billion dirhams as spent on diabetes related treatments in the UAE in 2007.

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