"There's a lot of work to be done, so we're looking forward to being back," Lew Bartfield, ADA division vice president, told the Sunday Gazette-Mail.

"That's great news, welcome and timely," said Perry Bryant, director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care. "The ADA could have an enormous impact in West Virginia with all the public education they're capable of doing."

An estimated quarter-million West Virginians have diabetes. Another 125,000 state residents are nearly diabetic, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. The state ranks either first or third in the nation in diabetes, depending on the poll.

The ADA closed its office in the state in 2009 after West Virginia fundraising contributions failed to meet the organization's goals.

"This time, the ADA will approach West Virginia with a mission-service agenda rather than a fundraising agenda," Bartfield said.

"We'll take all the help we can get," said Krista Farley, education director for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department.

Farley is trying to set up diabetes education programs with limited resources in nine coalfield counties as part of the state's Community Transformation Grant program. "It's an overwhelming job." Similar efforts are going on in all 55 counties. "If we can add the ADA, with all its resources, to the team, that would be tremendous."

"It's great to see an association like this decide to concentrate on its mission," she said. "These organizations sometimes get so caught up in fundraising, their purpose gets lost. We very much welcome a mission-driven organization that recognizes what's happening to people here and knows the impact they can have on our state."

With its wealth of resources, the ADA could play a big role in helping pre-diabetic West Virginians recognize their symptoms and go to their doctor and avoid diabetes, Bryant said.

"The ADA could provide education programs for children, too," said Jennifer Honnaker, a longtime Huntington ADA volunteer who chaired the ADA's state leadership council when the West Virginia office closed. "That's where the greatest need is."

"West Virginia is one of the battleground states as far as health issues go," she said. "For the American Diabetes Association not to have a physical presence is a real loss to us and just embarrassing to the organization."

The poor economy caused the office to close, Bartfield said. During the past four years, the ADA has, on paper, served West Virginia from Lexington, Ky.

That didn't work well, he said.

"We have had a person in Lexington who was supposed to service West Virginia, but there really has not been any service.

"We need to do something of substance in West Virginia," he said. In Kentucky, the ADA helped organize a statewide diabetes network and local ADA groups and supported them with materials and speakers.

Thanks in part to ADA's lobbying, Kentucky counties got an average of 77 cents per person for diabetes in 2011, compared to West Virginia's 6 cents per person.

In the past four years, at least 12 West Virginia counties have started diabetes coalitions to combat a surging epidemic. Many are struggling. The ADA "could be helpful to us in so many ways," said Marshall University professor Richard Crespo.

 "Just to have them physically present would be helpful and encouraging."

"We certainly have missed the presence of a physical ADA office here in West Virginia, and we would love to work with them," said Gina Wood, manager of the state's Diabetes Prevention and Control Program.

Bartfield said that since the ADA won't be fundraising, it hopes to limit overhead, perhaps by sharing space with an organization with similar goals. There's already interest.

"We'd like to talk with them," said Louise Reese of the West Virginia Primary Care Association. "All our members are actively providing diabetes control and prevention, so it would be a great fit -- if it's about education, not fundraising."

Reach Kate Long at katel...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1798.

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Helpful resources from the American Diabetes Association

The ADA website offers a wide range of practical, well-developed resources, including:

• "Living with Type 2 Diabetes," a free online self-help program with monthly newsletter and a range of resources that take the diabetic step by step through information about the disease and ways to get control of it.

• A range of advice about healthy diet and many tasty recipes

• Symptoms of diabetes and pre-diabetes

• Ways to start an exercise program and track your exercise