Now more than ever, we need to stick together as one unified community.
"Brown Bags" provide an opportunity to come together in a relaxed lunch-and-learn style as we hone in on a topic that could use more context. We usually feature DPAC Champions and/or subject matter experts from other organizations.
Use your voice! We rely on champions to be the voice of the diabetes community on Capitol Hill and in state capitols. We have frequent opportunities to get involved.
DPAC’s annual advocacy event gives diabetes advocates across the country the chance to meet with their Members of Congress and staffers, share their stories and promote policy initiatives on behalf of the diabetes community. Read about our 2022 Hill Day here.
In July 2020, members of the DPAC Team, alongside DPAC Champion Paul Madden, visited the White House and were able to relay to then-President Trump and other top officials the importance of affordable insulin access. The speech’s international exposure correctly focused on the prohibitive, high price of insulin and prescription drugs and the importance of affordability and access for people with diabetes to increase productivity benefitting theirs and their families’ lives.
In January 2021, as COVID-19 vaccinations began to rollout, the diabetes advocate community was surprised to find that the CDC had not categorized people with T1D as being at an increased risk for complications, potentially resulting in the approximately 1.6 million Americans with T1D receiving the vaccine later than others with similarly research-proven risk levels. In response, DPAC developed a letter-writing campaign which resulted in over 2000 letters being sent to every eligible governor in the US. Come April 2021, the CDC officially included T1D on its list of medical conditions. Together we moved the needle.