February 2010

Life! resources

There are many useful resources, free of charge, that the Life! office can offer facilitators to help with recruiting for upcoming course or to raise awareness about the Life! course.

If you could consider the following when you order resources:

What quantity, how many do I really need?
You can always get more. Better to order as you need, that way you don’t have to store them and they are kept in good condition. Plus it minimises wastage.

Will the resources reach the target audience? (Preferably 50+ but at best 40+ year olds) and will they be interested?
Unsolicited mailing or handing out of print material may end up in the bin. They will be more effective if accompanied by a few words from you that will encourage people to take action.

Will the resources increase referrals/recruit people for my course?
Print material is a great way to tell interested people more about the course and the benefits it offers. Other marketing materials like drink bottles, pens and magnets are more expensive and are good as one off give away as prizes. They don’t increase referrals if given out randomly. We need to monitor and only give out small quantities of these materials.

Resources cost money and valuable budget to produce.

When ordering your next batch of resources keep the above in mind. Resource order form can be downloaded by clicking here.

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Invoicing for people 40–49 years of age attending Life! courses

The Life! program has been approved by the Commonwealth government as an accredited Lifestyle Modification Program (LMP). This accreditation means that Life! facilitators can accept referrals, and receive a rebate for Life! service delivery for people 40-49 years of age at high risk of diabetes.

General Practice Victoria pays this rebate to accredited LMP providers. The payments are made as follows:

• $77* on participant enrolment (Life! session 1)
• $121* on completion of the intensive phase (Life! session 5)
• $41.80* on program completion (Life! session 6)
• $50 participant co-contribution (which is waived for Commonwealth concession card** holders)

* These values are GST inclusive
** Please note, HACC criteria are not applicable for people 40-49 years

To receive payment, you will need to submit the required minimum data set with an invoice for payment. Information on the invoicing procedure is available by clicking here and in the Life! program operations manual.

For support or clarification on the invoicing procedure for people 40-49 years, please contact Aimee Black or Melissa Cook at General Practice Victoria on 03 9341 5200 a.black@gpv.org.au or m.cook@gpv.org.au

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Refresher day – 23 March 2010

The upcoming refresher day will be the last refresher day.

According to the facilitator certification standards, Life! facilitators are required to run two or more Life! courses within a year of their training and attend the annual development and review day. Regrettably, not all Life! facilitators have run two or more Life! courses.

We understand that referrals into the program have been difficult to source and therefore the refresher day has been organised to ensure facilitators who have not run the required number of courses are given every opportunity to continue their involvement with the Life! program. This day will be a re-training session and is designed to reinforce the skills learnt at the Life! facilitator training.

RSVP to skhan@diabetesvic.org.au
Non attendance at the refresher day will mean your facilitator certification will not be renewed.

Details of the day are:

Date: Tuesday 23 March 2010
Time: 9 am to 4.30 pm (Registration at 8.45 am)
Venue: Rydges, 186 Exhibition St, Melbourne Vic 3000
 

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Certification requirements when co-facilitating Life! groups

The process to become a certified Life! facilitator has recently been reviewed, and as a result some new requirements regarding group co-facilitation have been implemented. To be a certified Life! facilitator you are required to conduct at least two groups per year and this has not changed. However, for those facilitators that co-facilitate a group you will now need to attend at least four of the total six sessions for the group to be credited to your yearly total of groups run. Co-facilitating less than the four sessions for a group will not entitle that group to be credited towards maintaining your certification.

Follow these steps to accurately record ALL facilitators that jointly run a group (level of access required only available to your provider contact and DA–Vic):

1. Log onto database using organisation level details (If not known contact the Data Management Co-ordinator at DA–Vic)
2. Click the groups tab
3. Locate the group in question and click to edit the group
4. Hold down the Ctrl key and select facilitators / co-facilitators that will be running the course
5. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the Save button.

It is very important that these steps for the setup of groups on the database are followed, as it keeps your records up to date and provides an accurate indication of how many groups you have run – both individually and co-facilitated.

Knowing this is key to keeping your certification as a Life! facilitator up to date.

For any enquiries regarding database operation please contact Andrew on alambert@diabetesvic.org.au or 03 9667 1703 or for questions on certification please contact Amy on atimoshanko@diabetesvic.org.au or 03 8648 1812.
 

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Making changes to participants’ records

Once you have clicked save and created a participant record, to make changes you need to go to the 'Edit Participant' section of the database rather than clicking the back button as this could cause duplicate records.

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