Candace Caputo
Diabetic Educator

We are pleased to have Candace Caputo, NN, CDE – Certified Diabetes Educator at the Brimfield Family Health Center 2-3 times per month. As part of Harrington Memorial Hospital ’s outreach program, Candace provides both one-on-one and group sessions for all aspects of diabetes. Her special interests are new onset diabetes, difficult to control diabetes, gestational diabetes and insulin and insulin pump therapy.

The diabetic educator helps patients and families better understand and manage their diabetes. Candace goes through basic facts about diabetes, risk factors, treatment plans, basic meal planning and carbohydrate counting and encourages exercise. She reviews medications, for example oral or insulin therapy, and shows patients and family members how to use syringes and give insulin injections. She teaches how to use blood glucose monitoring equipment and discusses potential complications of diabetes and how to prevent them, what to do on sick days and the signs and symptoms of hypo/hyperglycemia and how to prevent and treat both. Proper needle disposal is demonstrated and help is provided for coping with diabetes.

As part of the Gestational Diabetes Program, pregnant women who have been diagnosed with diabetes are loaned a glucose monitor and taught how to self-monitor their diabetes. After the delivery, the monitor is returned.

Candace is a certified insulin pump trainer for Medtronic.

She runs a monthly support group where ways to live healthy with a chronic illness such as diabetes are explored. In addition, she offers diabetic group classes in conjunction with the dietician two to three times a year.

Appointments are made through the Brimfield Family Health Center at 413-245-3389 or by calling Harrington Memorial Hospital at 508-765-9771 extension 2591 and asking for Candace.