LEARNING COLLABORATIVE DESCRIPTION:

Special and vulnerable populations, including those experiencing homelessness and housing instability, are disproportionately affected by diabetic complications due to a variety of environmental factors. Although a serious health condition, diabetes is manageable through physical activity, diet, and appropriate use of insulin and oral medications to lower blood sugar (glucose) levels. Community-based interventions that leverage both clinical and non-clinical strategies offer the opportunity to meet people where they are, manage existing cases, engage patients in their care plans, and even help prevent new diagnoses.

Housing Case Management staff are an important part of a cross-sector care team but are not necessarily trained in clinical practices related to diabetes prevention outside of the clinic setting where many prevention activities occur. There is a need for partnerships between health center staff and housing case managers to provide a better understanding and learning environment addressing how to incorporate motivational interviewing and other promising practices for diabetes prevention in a housing setting, including emerging practices and considerations in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Beginning in January 2021, the Corporation for Supportive Housing will create an opportunity for health centers serving people experiencing homelessness to explore effective strategies to demonstrate that many promising diabetes prevention and self-management practices occur in settings other than the clinic. This learning collaborative will identify what housing case managers require to support continued diabetes prevention care and management and provide training to address those needs. Some of these topics will include: nutrition, exercise, and medication management.

This Learning Collaborative (LC) will take place over the course of four 90-minute sessions. Facilitators will provide framework from a national perspective and facilitate interactions among participants to share local and organizational strategies, challenges, and successes. Health center staff with existing promising practices in the use of non-clinical services and housing case management will also be invited to share their perspective and best practices.

By the end of the LC, all participants will develop a draft Change Map to guide non-clinical and housing case management efforts in their own programs and clinics. The group will also have opportunities to demonstrate the implementation of these practices and their success. Participants who attend all four sessions and complete a Change Map will receive a Certificate of Completion. Participating sites may also have the opportunity to highlight applied practices with a wider audience in subsequent webinars, publications, and future iterations of this series.

ELIGIBILITY:  Prioritized applicants must be representatives of a Health Center Program grantee (or potential Health Center grantee)*

*Additional participants may be approved as space allows.

FEE: NO COST/ FREE

COMMITMENT: Accepted LC applicants are asked to attend a total of four learning sessions between January - March 2021.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES:

Health Center Participants and Housing case managers will:

1)   Identify alignment in diabetes prevention promising practices.
2)   Learn approaches for continued care for diabetes prevention outside of the clinic setting.
3)   Communicate their needs for supportive diabetes prevention after clinic visits.
4)   Share promising practices using Motivational Interviewing for nutrition, exercise and medication
       management outside of the clinic setting.

Session Details

SESSION 1 (Wednesday, January 20th, 2:00 - 3:30 Eastern Standard Time)
Participants will:
1.    Identify challenges in aligning clinical and non-clinical goals in diabetes prevention interventions
2.    Understand the purpose and structure of a Change Map
3. Craft a problem and goal statement regarding housing case management and diabetes prevention

o Homework: Change Map sections: Problem Statement, Target Population, Contributing Factors

SESSION 2  (Wednesday, February 3rd, 2:00-3:30pm Eastern Standard Time)
Participants will:
1.    Using a lens of cultural sensitivity, discuss promising practices to align diabetes prevention interventions
       between housing and health partners
2. Propose a diabetes prevention intervention and work through key considerations required for success

o Homework: Change Map sections: Culturally Appropriate, Resources, Partnerships, Staff Buy-in.

SESSION 3  (Wednesday February 17th, 2:00-3:30pm Eastern Standard Time)
Participants will:
1.   Discuss data collection tools and strategies to support data collection and track progress of new practices.
2.   Outline activities/phases, propose a timeline, and describe a plan to track progress and collect data

o Homework: Change Map sections: Activities and Phases, Timeline, Tracking Progress, Data.

SESSION 4  (Wednesday, March 3rd, 2:00-3:30pm Eastern Standard Time)
Participants will:
1.    Define what success looks like and articulate long-term goals for diabetes prevention program
        implementation
2. Complete your change map to meet identified goals for SDOH screening within special and vulnerable
        populations

o Homework: Change Map sections: Define Success and Sustain and Scale.

Please complete the following application to participate in this Learning Collaborative.

PLEASE SUBMIT APPLICATIONS BY THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31st AT MIDNIGHT LOCAL TIME.