Kansas Diabetes Action Council

Mission: To provide statewide leadership to prevent and control diabetes and reduce its impact on Kansans.

Purpose:

• Develop, implement and evaluate the Kansas Diabetes State Plan
• Increase public and provider awareness of diabetes
• Advocate for legislation, policies and programs to improve access to care and to improve the treatment and outcomes for Kansans with diabetes
• Represent public and private partners to coordinate activities that promote quality of care for Kansans with diabetes
• Develop state capacity for effectively addressing the primary prevention of diabetes
• Foster interagency collaboration and networking for identification, utilization, and expansion of resources for diabetes control services
• Serve in an advisory capacity to the federally funded Kansas Diabetes Prevention and Control Program

Membership: The Membership is open to any organization or individual with an interest or expertise in diabetes prevention and control. Members are expected to fully participate in the KDAC by attending meetings, working on a workgroup, communicating the KDAC activities to their internal organization and communicating their organization’s activities to the KDAC, and by collaborating within their own organizations to implement strategies that address one or more of the KDAC priorities.

Membership Roles and Responsibilities :

• Meet twice a year (at least one face-to-face) 3-4 hour meetings
• Review and provide feedback on all KDAC work products
• Serve on or contribute feedback to at least one workgroup
• Invite or recruit new members
• Respond to communications—usually email

Workgroups: In 2002, KDAC identified four priority areas including Primary Prevention, Quality of Care, Patient Self-Management and Policy/Advocacy. These priority areas are the focus of the Kansas Diabetes Plan and, as such, workgroups have been organized around each of the priority areas with the purpose of implementing the Kansas Diabetes Plan.

• Primary Prevention: This workgroup addresses issues including lack of education for nutrition and physical activity, lack of reimbursement for obesity management, lack of endocrinologists, the need for education for primary care physicians, and the role of mid-level practitioners.

• Quality of Care: This workgroup focuses on standards of care, access to services, and other relevant issues.

• Patient Self-Management: This workgroup focuses on barriers to patient self-management including culture, language, and cost issues.

• Policy/Advocacy: This workgroup focuses on assessing current policy issues including reimbursement barriers and advocacy strategies for securing additional funding.

Participating Organizations