Engaging Faith-Based Resources to Initiate and Support Diabetes Self-Management Among African Americans: A Collaboration of Informal and Formal Systems of Care

摘要

Diabetes for life (DFL), a project of Memphis Healthy Churches (MHC) and Common Table Health Alliance (CTHA; formerly Healthy Memphis Common Table [HMCT]], is a self-management program aimed at reducing health disparities among African Americans with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee. This program is one of five national projects that constitute The Alliance to Reduce Disparities in Diabetes, a 5-year grant-funded initiative of The Merck Foundation. Our purpose is to describe the faith-based strategies supporting DFL made possible by linking with an established informal health system, MHC, created by Baptist Memorial Health Care. The MHC network engaged volunteer Church Health Representatives as educators and recruiters for DFL.