Warriors in the Community is a radio segment that features short, insightful interviews with key figures from Wayne State University about the many ways in which the university and its programs make a positive impact on the metro area and on the lives of Detroiters. 

In our latest episode, we sit down with Nanette Hannum, assistant professor of physical therapy in the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and the liaison to the student-run Diabetes Education and Wellness (DEW) Clinic. The DEW clinic is made up of medical, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, social work and dietetic students. Its purpose is to educate and empower diabetes patients to have more autonomy in the management of their disease.

Transcript

Announcer:  This is Warriors in the Community, brought to you by Wayne State University. And now, to learn about how Wayne State is positively impacting our communities, here's Darrell Dawsey. 

Darrell Dawsey: Today I'm with Nanette Hannum, DPT. She's an assistant professor of physical therapy in the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

She's also physical therapy liaison to the student run Diabetes Education Wellness Clinic. So can you give us a sense of the issues on the ground in Detroit communities that make the Diabetes Education and Wellness Clinic so critical?

Nanette Hannum: Yeah, well, for many folks, when they're diagnosed with diabetes, it's kind of a life changing diagnosis and affects their whole life. 

Now they have to start going to doctor's appointments. They have to start managing all of this medication. They have to start thinking about what they eat and when they eat, how they're exercising, what kind of exercise they do. And so for folks in our neighborhoods in Detroit, we really wanted to make education about all these different aspects of diabetes care available to them in a format where we could kind of be like a hub.

Darrell Dawsey: Can you give us a few specific examples of the sort of work that you do to serve these communities?

Nanette Hannum:Yeah, so we offer medication advice for patients, we offer blood sugar monitoring techniques and supplies for them, we show them safe education or safe exercises and activity guidelines, we talk about how they can care for their feet, for their eyes, we do vision screenings, we give them ideas on how to make their chores at home easier, how to make their work life easier.

We can help monitor blood pressure, give them healthy eating tips, and connect them to resources to help maintain those things on an ongoing basis.

Darrell Dawsey: Wonderful. Keeping families safe and healthy.

Nanette Hannum:Yeah.

Darrell Dawsey: Well, thank you so much, Nanette. We appreciate you taking your time to talk with us.

Nanette Hannum: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Announcer: This has been Warriors in the Community. For more Wayne State news, please visit us online at today. wayne. edu slash wwj and join us here next Monday at the same time for more Warriors in the Community.