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Task Group to Create a Healthier Niagara Falls Participates in World Diabetes Day

The Task Group to Create a Healthier Niagara Falls is joining with millions of concerned organizations and people around the world today to recognize World Diabetes Day. The Task Group’s goal in this effort is to empower all neighbors to take control of diabetes by understanding the root causes, symptoms and how to live a healthy lifestyle.

Today's event is co-sponsored by the Community Health Center of Niagara, Mount St. Mary’s Hospital and Health Center and Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center.

In a show of solidarity supporting World Diabetes Day, the Task Group began its activities with a 10 a.m. press conference at Niagara Falls City Hall.

Area residents are encouraged to stop by one of the following locations to pick-up information on diabetes care as well as speak with a health professional from 11:00AM – 1:00PM:

• Community Health Center of Niagara – 501 10th Street
• City Hall- First Floor lobby
• Heart, Love & Soul – 939 Ontario Avenue
• Mount St. Mary’s Neighborhood Health Center – Ninth Street at Profit Lane
• Mount St. Mary’s Hospital and Health Center Cafeteria -- 5300 Military Road, Lewiston
• Summit Healthplex – 6934 Williams Road, Wheatfield
• Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center Cafeteria – 621 Tenth Street
• Trott Access Center – Cornell Cooperative Extension – 1001 Eleventh Street

Shelley Hirshberg, the Chair of the Task Group and Executive Director of the P2 Collaborative of Western New York, explains that “World Diabetes Day is a great opportunity to educate ourselves on the seriousness of diabetes care and to learn ways to prevent diabetes.”

She further states that the “Task Group is committed to doing its part to ensure that people who have diabetes are linked to healthcare providers and community resources to receive the care, education and treatment they may need.”

World Diabetes Day, which takes place every year on November 14th, was created in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in response to the increasing health threat that diabetes poses. Diabetes is a condition in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to change sugar and other food into energy.  If it is not managed, diabetes can result in too much sugar in the body.  This can lead to heart and kidney disease, and can affect every part of the body.

For further information about World Diabetes Day activities please contact Charles Walker, Director of Community Outreach for the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and Task Group member at 716-285-2382.