Cecom's diabetes program: Vamos pegar no seu pé [We will step on your toe]

Abstract

CECOM (Community Health Center) Diabetes Program, created 30 years ago, at Unicamp, has been developing actions with the purpose of helping employees, professors and student in the University who have Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and involve them in the self-care process, aiming to reduce the health damages resulting from the disease. In this sense, it seeks to stimulate and sensitize patients regarding early damage prevention and detection and health promotion with quality of life. As of 2015, the Program added a new activity consisting of systematic assessment of the diabetic patient's feet. The term "diabetic foot" is used to name various changes and complications occurred, individually or jointly, on feet and lower limbs of patients with DM, and that may evolve to potentially severe complications. The implemented activity's purposes are the following: empower team members for adequate assessment of feet and lower limbs of patient with DM, promote annual events for systematic performance of this action and add the diabetic patient's feet assessment to CECOM's service routine. The methodology used encompasses informative lectures to the patients, team awareness, and individual appointments with Program's professionals and routine feet assessment of the patient with DM, with conduct discussion. It is an action performed in partnership with Unicamp's Hospital das Clínicas' Diabetic Foot Ambulatory and Medicine students from the Diabetes LEAGUE, establishing close relationships with the partners for knowledge transference.