June 2010

Lifestyle Modification Program grants for divisions of general practice

27 Victorian divisions of general practice have recently received extra funding under the Commonwealth LMP Seed Grants to increase the number of LMPs and the number of 40–49 year old participants in these programs over the next six months.

Divisions will be working intensely with general practices which will see an increase in the number of referrals into your programs. They will also be looking to work with you, their local Life! Providers and Facilitators, to increase the number of LMPs in their area.

If you are interested in providing more Life! Programs, contact your local division or Melissa Cook at GPV on m.cook@gpv.org.au

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The importance of providing participant feedback to general practice

General Practice Victoria (GPV) has recently released a position statement on providing feedback to general practice regarding patient outcomes.

As a Life! Facilitator you are required to provide feedback on your participants to their usual GP about when they are enrol in a course, their outcomes throughout the course and if they withdraw from a course.

Below is an excerpt from the position statement.

Written communication from service providers to GPs:

• enables relevant effective primary health support to be provided
• reduces confusion for the patient/client 
• facilitates direct communication between facilitator and GP or patient/client outcomes  
• is essential to avoid treatment mishap, particularly in regard to medication 
• reduces the chance of duplication of management plans and tests, and so saves time and money 
• increases the chances that the patient follows up on necessary steps 
• facilitates continuity of care so that patients/clients’ care is not fragmented

Written communication from service providers to GPs also increases GPs’ understanding of the role of other service providers and their contribution to patient/client care. This increases the likelihood of future appropriate referrals and further cooperation.

Template letters for providing GP feedback can be found in the Facilitator Resources folder on the Life! website.

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Assisting your participants to increase physical activity in their neighbourhood

One of the five Life! program goals that participants are encouraged to adopt is to engage in at least 30 minutes per day of moderate physical activity.

Physical activity is the focus of session 3 which involves the assistance of an exercise physiologist and has the following three objectives:

• to support Life! participants with goal setting and making plans for lifestyle change
• to support Life! participants to enhance motivation and reduce barriers to increasing their level of physical activity 
• to show Life! participants that doing regular physical activity doesn’t need to be difficult; there are ways to make it easier

Activity 3.3 calls for the Facilitator to distribute a list of contact details for physical activity in the local area. Feedback from participants suggest that they find this 'local list' a very useful resource.

Each locality will have variety of options for engaging in physical activity in the community. Walking is often a good starting point for those who have not exercised for a while and there are a couple of online resources we suggest as being worthwhile for you to investigate.

The first website is the VicHealth initiative Victoria Walks, which along with local walking groups, contains a wealth of information about the benefits of walking and how to make your local neighbourhood more conducive to active transport.

The second website worth looking at for walking groups is the Heart Foundation Walking page.

These websites will be useful for participants who have access to the internet as well as a research tool for yourself to provide options for physical activity that are as much social as they are about exercise, thereby helping to create new, healthier habits.

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Avoiding duplicate participant records in the Facilitator database

When entering new participant data into the Facilitator database, please ensure that a record for the individual does not already exist.

To search for duplications, after clicking on the Participant tab, search for the individual’s surname in the search box.

In the case of a possible duplicate record being returned in your search, please notify us on lifeteam@diabetesvic.org.au so we can investigate further.

Note, unless that person is in one of your groups you will be unable to view the entire record.

Following the above steps whenever entering new participant data helps to avoid the potential confusion that duplicate entries can create whilst preserving the integrity of the data.

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Don’t forget to record participant demographic questionnaire data

One of the first forms participants are asked to complete in session 1 of the Life! course is the Demographic Questionnaire. The answers provided on this form complete the participant record on the Facilitator database.

When entering data from session 1 onto the Facilitator database for each participant, please do not forget to click on Edit This Participant to complete the following fields:

• Education Level
• Income Level
• Employment Type
• HACC Eligibility

Once all data is complete for this section, a green box stating ALL DATA COMPLETE will appear at the top of the screen.

Without this data, reimbursement for this participant may be delayed. This data is also very important from a reporting and planning perspective as it enables us to examine the pattern of enrolments and analyse the typical profile of Life! participants.

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Life! Facilitator database invoicing system

A short reminder to all facilitators about the Life! Facilitator Database Invoicing System:

• Once the date for your session 1/5 has passed, an ‘Invoice’ button will appear next to this session’s date when viewing your group page.
• When you click the ‘Invoice’ button you will be prompted to ‘proceed with the invoice’ OR
• If there are participants who are not eligible for invoicing due to missing data you will be prompted to ‘fix records’.
• Clicking ‘fix records’ will show you which participants have missing data and the areas in question, clicking this will take you to that section.
• Clicking ‘continue with invoicing’ will prompt you for your internal invoice number and your ABN. Once this is entered it will generate the invoice.
• Once created, make sure to print and send to us along with the tear-out forms from your participant manuals.

For those organisations who use internal invoicing systems

If your provider’s invoicing process requires you to use your own invoice system, please still follow the procedure above as this will assist you to ensure all participants being invoiced have complete data.

When prompted to, print the invoice then pass this to your accounts department so they can see what to invoice and ask them to staple this to the back of their invoice when sending in.

Feel free contact us on lifeteam@diabetesvic.org.au or (03) 9667 1765 with any queries.

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Make sure you return your referral forms with session 1 data

Just a reminder to return your participant referral forms to the Life! office when returning data for session 1.

Since the revised evaluation requirements were introduced late last year, we have asked for all participant referral forms to be returned to DA-Vic so that we are able to record data that is no longer captured on the Facilitator database (such as blood pressure).

If you require more reply-paid envelopes to return any that may have been overlooked, please contact Catherine on CCooke@diabetesvic.org.au to have some mailed to you.

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Life! program changes won’t impact upon WorkHealth

New initiatives introduced as part of the Life! program - a one-on-one visit with a Life! Facilitator prior to enrolment and a telephone health coaching program - won’t have any impact on WorkHealth’s existing procedures.

WorkHealth has received a number of enquiries about how the new initiatives might have an impact on the program and are keen to emphasise that the existing WorkHealth Check Clinical and Operational Guidelines must continue to be followed.

As per the existing guidelines, if a worker scores 15 or more on the AUSDRISK test, they should: 

• have their level of risk explained
• be advised that they can participate in the Life! program free of charge
• be provided with the ‘You and Diabetes’ tip sheet
• given a copy of postcard for workers at high risk of type 2 diabetes to reinforce their level of risk 
• be encouraged to call the 13 RISK service to enrol in a Life! course

When a worker aged 50 years or above makes contact with the 13 RISK service, they will be offered both the additional visit and telephone health coaching program to support their entry into Life!.

Please note: a worker can enter directly into a Life! course without attending a First Visit with a Life! Facilitator.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Lauren Day, our Life! Relationship and Systems Coordinator on (03) 9667 1756 or LDay@diabetesvic.org.au
 

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Life! social marketing update

It’s a busy time ahead for promoting diabetes prevention!

On 23 May, three weeks of advertising the Don’t be the type to leave it too late television advert began, in conjunction with print and radio.

Calling 13 RISK (13 7475), visiting the website or completing a coupon are the calls to actions for these adverts. The Central Referral Service then work hard to convert these expressions of interest into participants for your courses.

To recap, the May 2009 media-buy resulted in: 

• more than 100 calls to 13 RISK daily during peak times
• 300 coupons returned 
• 100 website visits registered weekly 

Since the Life! program began, over 19,000 people have expressed interest in Life! whilst 76 referrals were received in one week (week ending 10 May 2010) with referral numbers steadily climbing.

Another Life! media campaign consisting of television, print and radio, is set to commence 5 July to compliment National Diabetes Week which will be launched on 11 July (see the events section to the left for more information).

In September, the national Measure Up campaign will be shown for the first time in Victoria. This advert has been a huge success nationally and unfortunately until now has not been show in Victoria.

To piggy-back the noise generated by this campaign, the Life! television, print and radio advert will again air the week commencing 6 September, concluding 11 October 2010.

Further ahead we plan to use the ‘New Year Resolution’ theme to encourage people to commit to their healthier lifestyle promise by joining a Life! course.

Want to promote your own course?

People often don’t consider change until they have been motivated to do so a number of times, so the more noise, the more likely somebody will see it and take action to prevent type 2 diabetes.

Local activities tend to motivate people, more so if they know that it is not a lecture and is a new/proven way to prevent diabetes. Using these points to promote your Life! course, along the with the fact that Life! is free for most people, will encourage more people to join.

Don’t forget to see pages 15–21 in your Life! Operations Manual for tips on how to promote your course to potential participants.

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Only 3 places left on our Take Steps to China challenge!

This is your last chance to register for Diabetes Australia – Vic’s Take Steps to the Great Wall of China charity challenge.

From 16–25 October, you will visit Beijing and spend five days trekking the Great Wall to raise money for children with type 1 diabetes.

By joining this incredible adventure you will support Diabetes Camps Victoria’s (DCV) program for children with type 1 diabetes. The camps provide the opportunity to develop “independence through adventure”, gain skills in managing their diabetes and make new friends.

Each participant is supported by DA–Vic and Inspired Adventures to raise the required funds which cover the cost of the trip and provide valuable support to DCV.

To register for this experience of a lifetime and help make a difference to children with type one diabetes, please see the Inspired Adventures website for more information.

Please pass this information onto any of your participants who you think may be interested.

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