PAGC staff members Elaine Conacher, nurse, and Krista Loessl, dietitian, were asked to discuss their results along with about 100 other Canadian and international experts who spoke at the Canadian Diabetes Association & the Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism’s 10th Annual Conference in Toronto on October 19, 2006.

The Canadian Diabetes Association brought together more than 2,100 doctors, nurses and diabetes educators at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto October 18-21 to hear about the latest advancements in diabetes research, education and care.

Elaine Conacher is a registered nurse with 30 years experience in Community Health and Homecare in Prince Albert and Northern Saskatchewan. She has been a Diabetes Nurse Educator with the Prince Albert Grand Council’s (PAGC) On Reserve Diabetes Program for the past 5 years, having obtained her certified diabetes educator (CDE) designation in 2005.

Krista Loessl graduated from the University of Saskatchewan as a Registered Dietitian. She is a Certified Diabetes Educator working with the PAGC Diabetes Education Team, where she provides self-management and prevention programming for communities in northern Saskatchewan. In addition, she is a lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition.

While doing screening of heart disease and diabetes in the 14 communities that they cover, the team kept track of their findings.
“We knew that we had some interesting data from our screening program,” stated Conacher. “We were fortunate to get Pfeizer, a drug company, to compile our results to confirm some of our speculations.”

Results showed that there is about a 50 percent higher rate of smoking amongst northerners. As well, First Nations women are at even a higher risk for diabetes and obesity compared with rest of Canada.

“This study has helped us to reinforce, especially to women, that we need to focus on getting people’s cholesterol down and to get them to quit smoking,” added Loessl. It has been positive to see clients coming back and working on these goals”.

The PAGC provides diabetes prevention and management programming to 11 First Nation communities in northern Saskatchewan.

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