Wellness Partnership for a Healthy McKinley County

Topics	Children Diabetes Health promotion and disease prevention Minorities Networking and collaboration Youth
States served	New Mexico
Description	Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services, Inc. (RMCHCS), Gallup McKinley County School District, and Gallup McKinley Diabetes Advisory Council partnered to form the Wellness Partnership for a Healthy McKinley County: A Health Education Program for Hispanic and Native American Youth. The project goal was to improve the wellness of the community by developing healthy living skills in the 10-to 12-year-old population, and specifically to incorporate diabetes awareness activities into this target group's school day.
Services offered	The project involved an innovative education program using high school students to mentor elementary students in diabetes prevention techniques. The role model method of peers teaching peers is an effective tool for teaching diabetes prevention. High school mentors (Peer Promotura Mentors or PPM) were trained to teach the signs, symptoms, and risks of diabetes, as well as preventive nutrition and exercise strategies to fourth-and fifth-grade elementary school students using a modified Diabetes Management Program curriculum developed by RMCHCS. Efforts to involve the entire community in diabetes awareness included family fun nights, awards dinners, poster contests, a diabetes awareness parade, a magic show, a health and exercise fair, and other events.
Results	Subjective outcome data has shown that the high school PPMs benefited from the program. Improvement in organizational skills, self-esteem, and behavior were noted anecdotally. As one student put it, "I would feel like a hypocrite if I weren't trying to do what I was asking the kids to do."
Replication	The project has shown the success of a Peer Mentor Model for diabetes prevention. The basic model will work in any community, especially in small rural communities where families are close and where schools are the focus of family activity. Because this was a pilot project, it has been a dynamic work in progress. The essential issues of the model in a vast rural setting are: establishing convenient time scheduling to conduct instruction; maintaining consistent transportation for PPMs between the high school and the elementary schools; ensuring parental involvement when parents are already overextended with work, church, and other extracurricular activities; and finding available certified diabetes educators and dieticians to work with the program. The curriculum needs to be published and field-tested in its standardized form, and then refined. The project's ultimate challenge to is remove these barriers to replication.
Source	Outreach Sourcebook, Vol. 9, 1999-2002, Office of Rural Health Policy
Contact person	This project is now run by: McKinley County Schools

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