Maori scholarships to help fight diabetes

Monday, May 4, 2009
Maori scholarships to help fight diabetes

A recently launched scholarship scheme aims to turn the tide on the growing number of diabetes sufferers in South Auckland by training more Maori in health and nutrition at the Albany campus.

The Let’s Beat Diabetes Nutrition Scholarship programme is a workforce development partnership between the College of Sciences, the Counties Manukau District Health Board and the Ministry of Health.

Programme director Chad Paraone told scholarship recipients at a ceremony at the Albany campus that 27,000 of the 480,000 people in the district have been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes and others will have the condition without knowing. The number is projected to double within 20 years.

Maori and Pacific people make up about 40 per cent of the Counties Manukau population and had type-2 diabetes prevalence rates of 8.4 per cent and 16.2 per cent, respectively.

The board recently opened a new, very expensive renal unit – the largest in Australasia – to cope with growing numbers of diabetes patients, and more units will be needed if the current trend continued, he says.

“We’ve got to slow down the flow of those getting diabetes,” Mr Paraone said. “Students [of nutrition and health] will become part of the solution. Education gives you the power to make change.”

Part of the board's five-year, $10m plan to prevent diabetes involves building a Maori workforce equipped to better educate people about diet, exercise and healthy living in order to reduce high obesity levels. Obesity, caused by poor nutrition and lack of exercise, is a major factor in developing diabetes.

Massey’s Chair of Human Nutrition Professor Bernhard Breier told the group disease prevention was just one benefit of educating people about nutrition and health. “Exercise grows new brain cells. You can improve learning, well-being, performance and enjoyment of life.”

Ramona Radford, Maori Community Liaison Officer at the Albany campus, says the programme is more than a scholarship. “It is designed to provide a framework of support that ensures Maori nutrition students are successful as students and eventually as expert practitioners in their chosen field of nutrition.”

The scholarships are for one year, valued at $5000 each and available to students enrolled in undergraduate or postgraduate studies at Albany.

ENDS

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