VOLUME 7 NUMBER 1 • MARCH 2010
37
Secunda’s ‘diabetes whisperer’
a community worker who loves
what she does
Diabetes Personality
S
ecunda-based pharmacist, Jeannie Berg, is
her town’s most vocal and committed diabetes
educator. Her unique approach to her work is
inspired by the movie The Horse Whisperer. ‘I have a
poster of horses on the back of the door to my office
and whenever I have a patient in front of me, I’m also
able to look beyond them at the picture. It reminds
me not to be dogmatic, prescriptive and dictatorial.
Just as horses respond better to whispers in their ear
than to being whipped and tied down, so patients are
more likely to gain understanding of their diabetes and
follow your advice if you explain calmly, reason with
them and coax them gently. I call myself “the diabetes
whisperer”’, she laughs.
Jeannie is passionate about what she does. Her
interest in diabetes dates back to the mid-90s when
Boehringer Mannheim (now Roche Diagnostics) in-
vited her to give a talk on the subject, ‘What does a
pharmacist need from a rep!’ Shortly thereafter she
was instrumental in organising a big diabetes open
day in Secunda. ‘We undertook large-scale screening
and testing’, she recalls. ‘The mayor of Secunda lent
the project his full support, even organising busses to
bring people in from the townships. Pick ’n Pay helped
to sponsor the event and displayed healthy food mes-
sages. It’s so important to get this information out there,
as people on the ground tend to be uninformed.’
Jeannie started her career as a pharmacist in the
government sector and found, when she moved into
retail, that it required an effort to change her mindset
to one where she required her clients to pay for goods
and services. When it comes to diabetes education,
however, old habits die hard. ‘I believe that access to
the best possible care is a human right and no-one
should be turned away because they are unable to
pay.’ She has forged relationships with all seven of
the clinics that serve the Secunda area’s largely rural
population and has ensured that all the clinics’ diabe-
tes patients are referred to her for education – at no
cost. ‘One Friday a month I go to a clinic to teach the
staff and patients just one important aspect of diabe-
tes care, for example how to use a glucose meter.’
She has built similar relationships with Secunda’s
general practitioners and lone specialist physician
– and has ensured that all their patients get sent to
Jeannie ‘the diabetes whisperer’ gently testing a
patient’s glucose levels. (Photo by Carl van Staden)
Corrrespondence to:
Jeannie Berg, BPharm, MMed Prax
Kosmos Hyper Pharmacy, Secunda
Tel: +27 (0)17 631-7000
e-mail:
S Afr J Diabetes Vasc Dis 2010;
7
: 37–38
(Photo by Carl van Staden)
