Today’s invitation for Diabetes Canada to present recommendations before the Parliamentary Health Committee is an encouraging signal that the urgent plea for leadership to tackle the diabetes epidemic has been heard. Recent submissions to the government include a request for a Diabetes Strategy aimed at achieving measurable improvements in the prevention and treatment of diabetes and improving the health of all people in Canada.
“In Canada today, one in three people lives with prediabetes or diabetes. In some communities that rate soars above 60 per cent,” says Dr. Jan Hux, president of Diabetes Canada. “The magnitude of this epidemic can only be effectively addressed with concerted, coordinated effort. We are pleased to spearhead a Diabetes 360o approach that incorporates expertise from over 120 stakeholders in health care, government, private sector and education from coast to coast to coast.”
Diabetes Canada is building on a successful model implemented in the HIV/AIDS community that has been credited for transformational breakthroughs in the treatment and management of HIV/AIDS and adapting it to address diabetes in Canada. Diabetes 360o is also supported by the all-party Diabetes Caucus.
Implementing this proposed approach will mean that, in time, 90 per cent of Canadians would live in an environment that does not promote the development of diabetes; 90 per cent of Canadians would know whether they’re at risk for or living with diabetes; 90 per cent of those with prediabetes or diabetes would be engaged in appropriate interventions to avoid developing diabetes or its complications and, in consequence, 90 per cent of them would be achieving improved health outcomes.
“It is our hope that the federal government will invest the necessary and critical resources into supporting a strategy that will lead to the implementation of a pan-Canadian approach to the prevention and management of diabetes in Canada,” says Dr. Hux. “Such an initiative should establish collective leadership among all key stakeholders, including Indigenous communities, provincial and territorial policy-makers, health-care providers, and persons living with diabetes. This could put Canada in a position of global leadership in the treatment of diabetes in time for the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin in 2021.”
About Diabetes Canada
Diabetes Canada is the registered national charitable organization that is making the invisible epidemic of diabetes visible and urgent. Diabetes Canada partners with Canadians to End Diabetes through:
- Resources for health care professionals on best practices to care for people with diabetes;
- Advocacy to governments, schools and workplaces; and
- Funding world-leading Canadian research to improve treatments and find a cure.
For more information, visit diabetes.ca or call 1-800-BANTING (226-8464).