We Are AMCEC
A leading and trusted diabetes and Cardiovascular counseling agency known for excellent service and expert support.
Today, you have taken another step on your journey towards better health and well-being.
For Thos Who Value Self-Management and Support
Diabetes Counseling and Self-Management Programme is your opportunity to have all your questions and concerns answered virtually. Your diabetes educator would work with you in charting a path through or around your challenges that will remove most of the gloom surrounding diabetes management, making you feel confident about your chances of overcoming this condition and living the healthy, full life you deserve.
For Those Who Are Willing To Benefit From Our Heart-Health Tips
We also work towards helping you learn how to prevent reaching to the point of heart attack or stroke, by helping you to identify the warning signs beforehand, like high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, and smoking. We help you to learn to manage these precursors to heart attack and stroke and in the process prevent or minimize your chance of having any of them.
For Those Who Want to Make wise and healthy choices for a better quality of life
Our healthy lifestyle education also helps persons who have non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular diseases to make the right choices that will prevent complications and keep these conditions well managed.
And persons who are also at risk for NCDs can benefit from lifestyle counseling to prevent or minimize their chances of having NCDs
For Those Who Deserve Excellent Customer Support and Service
We will work with you by first listening to you, then using that information to help you to craft a plan that will guide you through the steps to recovery which include diet, exercises that are suitable for your condition, ensuring that you learn how to take your medication to get the best out of it, and helping you to learn to cope with the challenges associated with your condition.
Meet the CEO
RN, Dip. OHS, BSN MSN CCDE
Desmond Croker is a Registered Nurse and Caribbean Certified Diabetes Educator (CCDE) He also holds a Master’s degree in Advanced nursing from the University of the West Indies focusing on Education. He hails from the beautiful country Guyana (Land of many waters) and is the founder and CEO of Annie’s Memorial Chronic Disease Education Centre (AMCEC) and has worked with persons around the Caribbean including Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, and the Turks and Caicos Islands to help them to better understand self-management of diabetes and hypertension.
My name is Annette Young. Since being a member of Diabetes Self-Management Education & Support (DSMES), I have learned • How to better manage diabetes, how to plan my meals • How to understand and read labels • The correct way & time to take my medication • How I can better take care of my feet • How to feel better about me • The importance of knowing my HbA1C (3 month average of my blood sugar). My HbA1C has gone down NB: Any change in my life starts with me. GET COUNSELED NOW FOR DIABETES Annette Young
My name is Bernadette Millington and I am 57 years of age. Two years ago, I found out that I was diabetic. Since finding out I have diabetes, I had to make lifestyle changes. These changes have been a struggle mentally and physically. Mentally – as I must constantly plan my daily meals and physically – as I must incorporate exercise into my daily routine. Since my integration into the DSMES program, these adjustments changed from being a burden/task to my natural way of life. The program brought a group of strangers facing similar problems together. Who better to understand what you are facing than someone in the same situation? The program is truly a blessing to diabetic society.
My name is Victoria John. I take this opportunity to let you know how important to take care of yourself if you have diabetes. I have been living with this sickness for the past 15 years and I am in the Arima Lifestyle Clinic where I get to see the doctors and get tests done free. I never knew about HbA1C until I joined the DSMES support group. When I first took the test the result was 1.5 and the doctor explained that it was too high. After talks with other support groups such as dietitians, foot care persons, and others; I am trying to follow the instructions and my HbA1C WENT TO 9.5. Though this is still high, I am trying to control it with diet and exercise. If you have any symptoms of diabetes, get yourself tested. Let your doctor refer you to the Lifestyle Clinic, then join the DSMES group in order to get the support with diet exercise, and just having someone to talk to about diabetes.
My name is Roxanne Ali. I have been a diabetic for over 10 years. I was not managing my diabetes very well. My HbA1C was always high. My routine was to go to the clinic, take medicine and that was it. I was not given advice on the little details. After joining the DSMES group, I was taught how to take my medicine the correct way and time. I was seen by the foot care team and the dietitian. This made a great difference in my test results; after 3 months my HbA1C went from 11.8 to 8. My blood tests now are between 100 and 125. I am in control of my diabetes Thanks to the team's DSMES, I will advise anyone to join.
Hi everyone. My name is David Singh. I have been a diabetic for the last 15 years. I have followed my doctor's advice very well but that was not good enough. When I joined (DSMES) Diabetic Self-Management Education & Support group I was taught the correct method to use my medication. I was taught the importance of reading product labels to see if sugar and other unwanted ingredients were in the product and therefore should be avoided. My HBA1c went from 7.9 to 7.3 within the first month because of advice from Desmond Croker RN, Dip. OHS, BSN MSN CCDE {Founder and CEO} AMCEC. Contact them today you may be making the most important decision in your life as a diabetic.patient. Thanks to Mr. Croker and his team.
We have great answers to all the questions our clients have to ask
AMCEC And DSMES
Diabetes self-management education is necessary upon diagnosis of diabetes, whenever there is a change in treatment plan, whenever there is a crisis, for example, uncontrolled blood sugar and as an annual assessment
The service at AMCEC is personalized to meet the needs of each client. Therefore, if you have diabetes, diabetes self-management education will help you to better understand what you need to do to live a healthy lifestyle in spite of your circumstances.
Each lifestyle coaching session may be different depending on the goals and needs of the person. At first, we’ll assess your risks and immediate needs and prioritize them, set goals, then we will lay out a plan on how we will go about addressing those goals.
Occasionally you will also be given assignments to help you direct your progress. We’ll work together to discover what obstacles are in your way and figure out how to overcome them. With each session, we’ll revisit your goals and see what steps are needed to achieve them.
There is a scarcity of information given in the healthcare system. Persons with diabetes are not given enough information to help them to make the decisions that they would have to make every moment of their life. Diabetes self-management education will give you the opportunity to ask all the questions and have them answered and express all the concerns that you have with the treatment and have these explained to you in terms that you can understand.
Persons needing diabetes self-management include; persons with prediabetes, those who were recently diagnosed as having diabetes, persons having challenges managing blood sugar esp. those taking medication and not able to reach their goal. Persons making a change in treatment like moving from oral medication to insulin.
A diabetes educator is a health professional who has had additional training in the management of diabetes. With a diabetes educator you will have full support and counselling in understanding how and when to exercise, foods to eat and those to avoid, how to take your medication to get the best from them and understanding how to manage stress in your life.
Yes! there will be a certificate offered to clients successfully completed the diabetes self-management programme and gain full independence to manage their condition.
Diabetes Care
There are a number of risk factors related to diabetes. These include:
- Ethnicity: Africans, Asians, Middle Eastern and Hispanic
- Age: just reaching the age of 40 put you at risk for diabetes
- Inactivity: being active less than 3 times a week
- Being overweight or obese
- Having a mother, father, brother or sister with diabetes
- A woman giving birth to a child over 9 pounds
- A woman with gestational diabetes
- Stress is a major contributor to the onset of diabetes
- Insulin resistance
- Being diagnosed with polycystic ovaries
- Acantosis nigricans
- Metabolic syndrome
Symptoms associated with diabetes include:
- Frequent urination
- Excessive thirst
- Tiredness
- Hunger
- Blurred vision
- Burning or tingling in the feet
- Unexplained weight loss
- Wounds that take long to heal
Tingling sensation in hands and feet.
Please note that absence of these symptoms does not mean that you do not have diabetes
Complications associated with chronic diseases are wide and varied and include;
Heart diseases, stroke, kidney failure, blindness, amputations, blood circulation problems, wounds that won’t heal, high blood pressure, diabetes, liver failure, just to name a few.
You can prevent these complications by learning things you need to do to live a healthy lifestyle.
To know if you have diabetes you must be diagnosed as such by a doctor. However, if you are recognizing any of the symptoms of diabetes and have not yet been diagnosed you can take a random blood sugar test. If the result is over 200mg/dl or 11.1mmol/L it is quite likely you have diabetes. This however must be confirmed by a doctor.
Yes it is! But on condition that you have made the decision to make changes to your lifestyle. This, however, must be a process that we can work together on to achieving that goal.