News — NEW YORK, April 15, 2019 – South Bronx-based Health People: Community Preventive Health Institute launched today its #DiabetesEmergency, #DiabetesCrisis social media campaign to push the New York City Board of Health to declare type 2 diabetes as a public health emergency.
The Board will be debating the issue at its next public meeting on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at Health Department offices at Gotham Center, 42-09 28th Street, Room 3-32 Long Island City, NY 11101.
“So many people – and their family and friends – are suffering from diabetes that we wanted to give them a chance to tell the city why diabetes is an emergency and to say what has happened to them as this disease has increased and increased for years,” said Chris Norwood, Executive Director of Health People.
More than 16 percent of New York City’s adult population –a staggering 1.1 million men and women age 20 and older – now have diabetes. It is the city’s most prevalent and costly disease. It is causing never-before-seen levels of disease-related disability, including eye problems and blindness, kidney disease and dialysis and lower-limb amputations. The city’s diabetes-related lower limb amputation rate alone has soared 55 percent since 2009 and yet the city has no coherent response.
As part of the #DiabetesEmergency, #DiabetesCrisis campaign, Health People will be highlighting New Yorkers impacted by the disease who are urging the Board of Health to recognize type 2 diabetes as a public health emergency.
These include Loretta Fleming who posts, “Diabetes is an emergency because so many of our loved ones are dying from it,” and Elton Santana who posts “Diabetes is an emergency because minority neighborhoods have the highest percentage of amputations and the highest number of deaths and counting.”
About Health People
Health People is a groundbreaking peer education, prevention and support organization in the South Bronx whose mission is to train and empower residents of communities overwhelmed by chronic disease and AIDS to become leaders and educators in effectively preventing ill health, hospitalization and unnecessary death.
Established in 1990 as a women’s AIDS prevention and support program, Health People has grown, using its peer-education model, to provide a full range of HIV/AIDS services for men, women and families. It also has conducted community asthma programs, New York’s first diabetes peer-educators program, and a community smoking cessation program. Health People’s Junior Peer program, Kids-Helping-Kids includes teens who are mentors for younger children with sick or missing parents.
For more information, please visit www.healthpeople.org
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