PARTNERS | HEALTHY CITY  | HOW HEALTHY | VISION | SUMMIT | PRIORITIES | FUNCTIONS | CITY OF FALL RIVER

Diabetes Prevention and Management with Rose Marie Couto, RN, CDE 
and Laurie Hammontree, RD, LDN, CDE

Saint Anne’s certified diabetes educator Rose Marie Couto, RN, CDE presented “Diabetes Prevention and Management,” the first session in an educational program for adults held from Oct. 5-26, 2010. With a common-sense, easy-to-use approach that focuses on healthy eating and exercise, she describes a few simple steps can help prevent one of the country’s most prevalent diseases. According to the American Diabetes Association, 57 million people nationally have prediabetes, a condition where blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Recent research has shown that some long-term damage to the body, especially the heart and circulatory system, may already be occurring during prediabetes. In the Fall River area, the incidence of diabetes in the Fall River area is higher than both state and national averages. “However, the good news,” says Couto, “is that there are strategies that can actually help to prevent diabetes, and many tools for successfully managing it. Our goal with this program is to help people understand diabetes, learn what’s possible to help them prevent or manage diabetes, and get the help they need so they can live healthy, productive lives.” To see videos of the first presentation in the series, click on any of the links below. For more information, contact Ms. Couto at 508-674-5600, X2490.

Part I: Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes - What's Going On? 

Part II: Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes-What Can You Do? 

Part III: Understanding Exercise and Medication

Part IV Easy Meal Planning for Type 2 and Prediabetes

Part V: Understanding Meal Planning for Type 2 Diabetes

    
 Click here for Ms. Hammontree's presentation               and here for a video of Ms. Couto's
presentation held at Heritage State Park Visitors' Center in May, 2011

The ABC's of Children's Weight Management with Dietitian Kathy Bucklin, RD

In order to help parents learn to help their children manage their weight, a session in the “Meet the Pediatric Pros” series offered free information for parents and other caregivers on March 31, 2009. Sponsored by Fernandes Center for Children & Families of Saint Anne's Hospital, pediatric dietitian Kathleen Bucklin, RD spoke on “Weigh Well: the ABCs of  Children's Weight Management”. A graduate of the University of Rhode Island, Bucklin is a registered dietitian who works with children of all ages on a variety of nutrition topics and issues, including weight management. Saint Anne’s Hospital is Greater Fall River’s only comprehensive provider of inpatient and outpatient pediatric health services for children from infancy through young adult. For further information about the series, contact Anne Ferreira at 508-235-5056. Click here for the web page.

Click here for the introduction

Click here for a session on diet

Click here for a session on portion size

Click here for a session on behavior modification

Click here for a session on exercise

Click here for a summary of the overall approach

FALL RIVER FITNESS CHALLENGE VIDEOS
 

Through the Challenge, participants gained access to programs and fitness centers throughout the city for little or no cost.  These programs were designed to help individuals learn to eat well, lose weight, get fit and prevent Type 2 diabetes. A variety of prizes were donated by local businesses to be awarded to the teams and individuals with the highest percentage of weight loss. The Challenge was a way to call attention to already existing programs, to teach and encourage a healthy lifestyle, and to encourage people to change habits that were destructive to their health. Businesses and social groups were challenged to form teams to compete and support one another. Click here for the Fitness Challenge home page.

See all of the Fitness Challenge videos here!

Weigh-in

5th Challenge event  

6th Challenge event  

COMMUNITY GARDENING WITH DEREK CHRISTIANSON

Derek Christianson of Brix Bounty Farm in Dartmouth led a session on vegetable plant and seed selection on March 24, 2009 in the Community Room of the Fall River Public Library. The program was part of the Healthy City Fall River effort to promote the establishment of community gardens in Fall River. Mr. Christianson offered information on each of the vegetable families: alliums, brassica, chenopods, compositae, cucurbits, legumes, solanaceae and umbels along with recommendations for planting times and conditions. He also touched on soil preparation, crop rotation, succession planting and companion planting. Click here to go to the web page.
 

Click here for Part I

Healthy City Fall River sponsored an educational session on soil analysis on October 23, 2008, to assist groups and individuals in Fall River who wish to start a community garden in determining what has to be done before planting next spring in regard to soil analysis and preparation. Derek Christianson of Brix Bounty Farm in North Dartmouth (http://brixbounty.blogspot.com) led a session on soil testing and soil health at St. Luke’s Church on Warren Street for about a dozen interested gardeners. Anyone may submit a soil sample to University of Massachusetts at Amherst for testing. The basic charge is only $9.00 or $13 with a PH test. All the information needed is at www.umass.edu/plsoils/soiltest or by calling 413-545-0111

OTHER HEALTHY CITY FALL RIVER VIDEOS
 

Click here for the original video produced in 2004 that introduced the Healthy City Fall River initiative.

To return to the Health City Fall River Main Page, click here.