Public health department highlights four prioritized diabetes prevention strategies, identifies $210,000 in initial funding

The Santa Clara County Public Health Department on Tuesday presented a set of prioritized actions from its diabetes prevention strategic plan and told the Health and Hospital Committee that initial funding has been identified to begin implementation.

Angelica Diaz, director of the Healthy Communities Branch, told the committee the collaborative that developed the plan includes roughly 30 organizations and that the full strategic plan identifies 21 strategies across four focus areas. “In today's report you see four strategies that are being recommended for implementation over the next couple of years and further prioritized with their associated costs,” Diaz said.

Committee members asked about funding and next steps. Diaz said the public health department recently secured $110,000 in one‑time funding over three years from the American Institutes for Research and that an additional $100,000 in one‑time funding will be awarded directly to collaborative partners, for an identified total of $210,000 to support the prioritized strategies.

The committee discussed how universal diabetes screening might be implemented. Diaz and county staff emphasized that routine screening is typically delivered in patients’ medical homes and covered through their health coverage, and that the department’s role is to identify system gaps and coordinate partners rather than to provide universal screening itself. “Universal screening could look something like every adult who is at risk for prediabetes and diabetes receives a screening at their medical home, and their health coverage plan is paying for those screenings,” Diaz said.

Committee members requested continued pursuit of additional funding sources, including private foundations, and asked the department to keep the board updated. Vice Chairperson Abe Koga and Chairperson Lee both voted to receive the report; staff said the department will continue working with collaborative partners and return with updates and budget details as funding is secured.

The committee also discussed outreach and making screening and low‑cost A1C testing more accessible in community settings as a way to identify people earlier and refer them to prevention and treatment services.