A diabetes conference hosted by Three Corners Health Services Society is underway at Thompson Rivers University.
Stacey Isaac, nurse manager with Three Corners, was greeting delegates early Tuesday morning, and said the conference is for community members who have diabetes and for health workers.
“Our Aboriginal population is at a little higher risk for developing diabetes throughout their life so we want to provide education to all of our members and any staff,” Issac said.
It is anticipated that people will come from different communities around Williams Lake, including as far as Canim Lake.
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Sagar Sandhu, Maricar Mission and Matthew Summerskill are nurses with the Mobile Diabetes Telemedicine Clinic from Prince George.
They arrived Monday to set up the clinic in two classrooms at TRU.
Mission said the clinic travels to between 55 and 60 First Nations communities in Northern B.C. with Williams Lake and the communities west of it, being the farthest south.
“We do a yearly visit in person and then follow up afterwards throughout the year on the phone,” Sandhu said.
During the conference, people who access the mobile clinic will get full blood work done.
“It takes about seven minutes, and then after that we ask them about their medications and how they are doing and then we go over all their blood work results with them — their blood sugar, cholesterol, kidneys, blood pressure and we check the eyes and the feet.”
Mission said they have a retinal camera that screens for bleeds behind the eyes.
“It’s a one stop shop and saves people four to six visits to their doctor which is really important for people who live remotely and don’t have a way to get into town,” she added.
Issac said there will be presenters during the conference, such as an optometrist who will discuss eye care.
“We will have a kidney check program, a Diabetes 101 for those people who have recently been diagnosed and not as familiar with it,” Isaac said.
In other years the conference was held at the Elks Hall, this is the first time it is being held at TRU.
Read more: Three Corners Health hosts diabetes conference
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