Diabetes Education and Nutrition Program

Staying healthy when you have diabetes isn’t always easy. But understanding how diabetes affects your body can help you make good choices when it comes to eating right, monitoring your blood sugar and taking the right medication. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends education for people diagnosed with diabetes, and many insurance providers, including Medicare, cover diabetes self-management training.

Individualized Diabetes Education: What to Expect

At UMass Memorial Health, we do a comprehensive assessment to find out what areas to focus on in your diabetes self-management success plan. After your assessment, you meet one-on-one with a certified diabetes care and education specialist (CDCES) or attend a group workshop to learn how to live better, one day at a time.

Your care team focuses on helping you manage your condition in ways that fit your lifestyle, goals, budget and schedule. We recommend annual check-ins to stay on track. 

Our diabetes education program provides information about:

• A1C testing
• Continuous glucose monitoring
• Emotional well-being and coping with stress
• Diabetic foot care and screenings
• Physical activity and your lifestyle
• Insulin pumps and other insulin delivery methods
• Meal planning and eating a low glycemic diet
• Preventing and detecting complications
• Taking medications safely
• Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes self-care

Gestational Diabetes Education Program

We use a team approach to ensure you and your baby receive the right level of monitoring and care before, during and after pregnancy. Gestational diabetes services include: 

• Information on pregnancy and diabetes management
• Meal planning with a registered dietitian
• One-on-one visit with a CDCES
• Preconception counseling for women with existing diabetes
• Diabetes management during and after pregnancy

Benefits of Diabetes Education

Evidence shows that diabetes education leads to positive changes and better mental and physical health, including:

• Better weight management
• Fewer hospital admissions and ED visits
• Healthier diet
• Improved A1C
• Increased physical activity
• Lower risk of diabetes-related complications
• Reduced stress