Cape Town - A dietitian working in Khayelitsha is committed to improving access to healthcare education for those living with diabetes.
And Ra’eesa Kerbelker from the Michael Mapongwana Clinic in Khayelitsha aims to accomplish this by taking her message to the upcoming World Rural Health Conference in Ireland next month to source funding to support her project.
Kerbelker was selected after writing an abstract titled: “South Africa, diabetes on the line”, with the assistance of Dr Joleen Cairncross from Stellenbosch University.
The theme of the abstract was: “community engaged in health professional education and innovation in medical education.”
The conference will take place in Limerick from June 17 to 20 where members in the health sector will explore how communities can and are empowered to improve their own health and the health of those around them.
Kerbelker said the opportunity to participate in the conference will allow her to assist other patients in the country.
“The main reason behind my participation is to get a buy-in and funding from other key stakeholders to obtain more resources for the ‘living GREAT with diabetes project’, which can be utilised across the metro,” said Kerbelker.
She said creating awareness was key to empowering patients and making health care education accessible to patients living with diabetes.
“Some patients cannot come to the clinics for various reasons, we do not want any patients to miss out on an opportunity to be educated and empowered,” she said.
Kerbelker said Dr Cairncross motivated her to submit the abstract and it was approved.
The initiative aims to introduce Group Empowerment and Training (GREAT) to educate and empower patients with diabetes and to train health care workers to facilitate the groups.