Diabetes Support and Education for Culturally Diverse Populations

Project Dulce is a program model that originated from healthcare providers and community organizations in San Diego that sought to design a diabetes education curriculum that was culturally appropriate and relevant for ethnically diverse patients in the San Diego County area.  Based on the Chronic Care Model, the program uses a Nurse Coordinator and Diabetes Peer Educators, who are often patients with diabetes or family members of diabetics and are from the same communities of the program participants.

Started in the Fall of 2010, the Camden Project Dulce program is currently operating out of a single primary care practice in the city.  The Project’s Nurse Coordinator works with diabetic patients within the practice and provides individual care planning and education, tracking patient outcomes and using ADA standards and guidelines.  This is all done in direct coordination with their primary care provider.   Parallel to this, patients are directed to a group education and support class, led by the project’s Peer Educator.  Cultural differences in regards to diet and nutrition, exercise patterns, communication methods, family support, and food access, often limits the relevance of traditional diabetes education programs in urban communities.  The Peer Educator presents diabetes education that has been modified to bridge these differences, which are all incorporated directly into the Dulce curriculum.

For more information about the Project Dulce program in Camden, please contact us.