C. EVERETT KOOP NATIONAL HEALTH AWARDS

Diabetes is a multisystem disorder that is estimated to cost approximately $100 billion annually and is the fourth leading cause of death by disease. In addition to the medical costs, it results in reduced productivity and premature disability and death. At Motorola, Diabetes has remained a significant factor in the costs of medical care and disability payments. Because Phoenix has a high Hispanic and Native American population, our employee population is at greater risk for Diabetes that are groups in other parts of the country.

Nurses at Motorola recognized that many employees were having difficulty their Diabetes. They were not receiving adequate information from their medical providers, and were confused, overwhelmed and slipping further out of control. Occupational Health Resources recognized that interventions targeted to Diabetes needed to be added to our existing wellness program. To support employees, Motorola launched its diabetes support group, "Motorola Communicators" early in 1995 with the first meeting on April 30th of that year. Meetings are held bimonthly and include formal presentations as well as discussion time for clarification and sharing. Presentations are given by local professionals in medicine, nursing, nutrition and other related disciplines. Funding is provided from the department of Occupational Health Resources.

The goals of this program are to:

1. Improve self-care management of diabetes to reduce absenteeism.
2. Reduce risk factors and increase productivity by promoting appropriate use of health care system and encouraging active partnership between the employee and providers.
3. Expand health care consumer skills by increasing knowledge of disease process and local resources.
4. Enhance emotional and social well being via peer and professional support.
5. Improve quality of life issues by fostering employee empowerment, confidence and choices.

Motorola, SPS, 52nd Street, has approximately 4500 employees. The target populations are all current full-time and part-time employees and their family members, retirees and interested Motorola employees from other sites in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.

In addition to the bimonthly meetings, to reinforce the concepts from group meetings, there is the Communicators Newsletter which provides additional information on Diabetes management and community resources. Furthermore, the close relationships established during meetings encourage employees with questions to come to Health Resources. Without the support group they may have viewed the nurses as resources only for secondary or tertiary intervention.

Strategies for behavior change are based upon Orem’s Theory of Self-Care. This nursing model asserts that the goal of health care is to enable and individual to be a independent as possible. Where an individual has self-care deficits, the provider’s intervention will include guiding, supporting, teaching and providing a developmental environment to enable him to meet as many of his own needs as possible. There is a large body of literature and research in support of this model. It is well-suited to health care provided in the workplace as employees are predominantly on the well end of the health-illness continuum.