On March 3, more than a dozen inmates graduated from San Quentin’s Diabetic Class. The 10-week course focuses on the effects of diabetes on the body with a goal of improving the health of participants.
“We have a lot of people who don’t know how to manage the disease,” said Sonia Spindt, project coordinator. “So, about a year and a half ago Dr. Elaina Tootell approached Clinton to create a diabetic management program to educate the men.”
Inmate Clinton Martin was instrumental in creating the diabetic class after he and Dr. Tootell talked about the idea at a fundraiser last year.
“I find that inmates get a lot out of these classes,” said Dr. Tootell, the prison’s chief medical officer. “Having a peer-taught class is very effective for teaching inmates.”
The course teaches inmates about the nutritional aspects of foods; how to read food labels; why keeping a food log is important; monitoring blood sugar levels; meditation and breathing; exercise and fitness; how diabetes affect nerves; and heath care maintenance.
In addition, a five-week advanced class delves into heart disease, foot and eye care, with aftercare services.
“I went to diabetic classes at Kaiser, but I didn’t take the classes too seriously,” said Ralph Ligons, 62. Ligons said he has been a diabetic for 20 years.
“When I got in Dr. Tootell’s class, I found out how serious the disease is. Since being in her class, I lost about 35 pounds in the last year just by following the instructions.”
Ligons said the material is easy to understand and instructions are not complicated.
“Reading, understanding and doing the things recommended in the material will extend my life,” he said. “I learned how bad smoking and drinking is. Smoking clogs the arteries, which leads to amputations, and alcohol turns directly into sugar, which is very bad for diabetics. I’m glad that the administration supports this program.”
Darrell “Waylo” Williams, 52, said he was diagnosed with diabetes in 1992 while in Solano County Jail. His symptoms were frequent urination and constant thirstiness.
“One night I was watching TV and my vision got really blurry. The next day I went to sick-call and found out I had it.”
Williams said in 2011 his blood sugar levels were high because he was stressing about family matters. “I joined Dr. Tootell’s class in 2012 and learned about the disease,” he said. “The class taught me a lot about how to prolong my life by paying attention to food intake. But, since there’s no special diet here, I had to learn what to eat and what not to eat. I learned the importance of eating a lot of vegetables and more fish and chicken.”
Williams recommends for everybody to take the class, even if they don’t have diabetes. He said if someone in their family has the disease, the valuable information they learn in the class could be passed to them.
“We find that the participants eagerly take in the information because they want to return to their families healthy,” said Dr. Tootell. “The men take monitoring their blood sugar level very seriously. I never heard men so excited about their blood sugar.”
Dr. Tootell said with more than 200 men on the waiting list for the class. She would also like to modify the class size and cycle so that more men could be accommodated. She said under a normal clinical setting there is never enough time to fully explain all aspects of the disease. However, San Quentin’s two-hour, 10-week introduction class and five-week advanced class gives participants a lot of valuable information about diabetes.
The program has five permanent facilitators. Guest speakers are invited to lecture on different topics where expert knowledge is needed, like meditation, retinopathy (eye damage), and heart disease.
Medical is working on getting glucose meters to check blood levels.
“Getting the menbetter shoes would help them tremendously,” said Kim Bailey, who is a course facilitator. “Also, giving the men diabetic diets would improve their lives.”
The program facilitators say they are seeking to give diabetics identification bracelets so that during a medical emergency first responders could identify them as diabetics.
“We hope to expand into other diseases like valley fever and cancer,” Spindt said.
