Good Tidings News from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation
S p r i n g / Su m m e r
2022
Helping Seniors Thrive Lee Dear
Marshall McCorkle considered herself to be fairly Primeplus wanted to offer a diabetes lifestyle change healthy. Since retiring as a school reading specialist in program in response “to some sad data we were starting to 2010, McCorkle has regularly participated in classes at the see among seniors during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Bob Primeplus Senior Center in Norfolk, where she now teaches Batcher, the nonprofit’s executive director. Diabetes testing tai chi. Two hip replacements have helped her stay active plummeted during the pandemic because seniors were not despite osteoarthritis. going to the doctor as much. As seniors resumed doctor visits, So McCorkle, 81, was Batcher said a “sky-high” caught off guard last fall when problem with prediabetes her doctor diagnosed her as became apparent. prediabetic. The grant from the Determined to do community foundation everything she could to avoid helped Primeplus prepare developing Type 2 diabetes, the program and promote McCorkle signed up for the it to local residents — new, free PreventT2 Program primarily through doctors’ at Primeplus. A two-year, offices, senior services, and $100,000 grant from the churches — as a structured Hampton Roads Community program using an approach Foundation funded PreventT2, proven to prevent or delay which recently started with diabetes. 17 seniors who will meet “The key is, you’re not regularly for a year to support alone,” Batcher said. “It’s each other as they learn about better to do things in an nutrition, exercise, and stress accountable community.” management. Another cohort Based on national The PreventT2 program is helping seniors overcome diabetes is in the works. research, adults who lose with the help of a community foundation grant. McCorkle soon found that five to seven percent of their lifestyle changes the program weight can cut their risk encourages — such as walking regularly, tracking what she of developing diabetes by 71 percent among adults over 60 — eats, and drinking enough water — gave her more energy an age category that includes many taking part in PreventT2. and lifted her overall mood. She also dropped six pounds Participants maintain activity logs and action plans to stay on within a few weeks. track, and the program creates a supportive environment. “It’s a whole new opening of my eyes to see what I do and “I love teaching people that the things they think they what I’m capable of doing,” said McCorkle, a member of the can’t accomplish, they can,” said Brittany Acevedo, Primeplus Primeplus board. wellness coordinator who leads the program. Acevedo According to the Centers for Disease Control and transitioned from working part-time to full-time because of Prevention, one out of three American adults has prediabetes. the grant. Their blood sugar is higher than normal, raising their risk of “Health doesn’t have to be this big scary monster,” she Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Many don’t know said. “You can take it in bite-size pieces and make a they are prediabetic. lifestyle change.”