January 2011

First Visit payment restructure

The introduction of First Visits has significantly increased the number of people being referred to a Life! course.

To continue supporting Life! facilitators in this capacity through to 30 June 2011, the payment structure of First Visits was amended.

Effective 1 January 2011, the $83.45 (excl. GST) First Visit reimbursement will be split into two instalments as follows:

• $50.00 (excl. GST) will be paid to providers for a First Visit with a potential participant on submission of an invoice for a complete First Visit.
• $33.45 (excl. GST) will be paid following session one to the provider whose course the First Visit participant has attended. This amount is in addition to the $200 (excl. GST) the provider receives for complete data at session one.

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Courses scheduled in 2011

With 2011 upon us already, we would like to remind facilitators to ensure that Life! courses are scheduled for commencement within this financial year.

To ensure your course is advertised on the course locator, please email Central Referral on life@diabetesvic.org.au once the complete location and dates for a course have been entered into the database.

This will also assist with referrals into your group.

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Cessation of Life! program funded pathology request slips

Funded pathology slips were introduced as a temporary support measure late in 2008 and were not included in the initial Life! program budget.

As such, from 1 January 2011, the Life! program will no longer be providing funded pathology slips to exclude diabetes in potential participants.

In order to exclude diabetes, please encourage potential Life! course participants to visit their usual GP for a fasting blood glucose (FBG) test and complete lipid profile (total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides).

Please feel free to use the incomplete referral request form available under the Facilitator Resources section of our website.

Your feedback and contribution to the Life! program is greatly appreciated and we are here to assist you. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Lisa, Social Marketing Manager via email on LEmbling@diabetesvic.org.au

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Life! substudy update

An important aspect of evaluation of the efficacy of the Life! course, is to ascertain the percentage of participants completing the Life! course who have achieved the Life! program goals.

Until recently, goals relating to healthy eating (listed below) were not actively monitored and recorded and therefore required a more rigorous study to ascertain how successfully they are being adopted.

• No more than 30% of energy from fat
• No more than 10% of energy from saturated fat 
• At least 15g / 1000kcal fibre

From August 2010, facilitators who had immediately upcoming courses were contacted to participate in the Life! Substudy.

The Life! substudy involves collecting three day food diaries and other questionnaires from an estimated 350 Life! participants at three time points, that is, following session 1, session 5 and again following session 6.

Analysis of received food diaries has commenced with feedback to participants being posted out as requested.

Thank you to all of you who are actively involved with the Life! Substudy. We look forward to your ongoing assistance with encouraging participants to complete all three parts as they progress through to session 6 of their Life! course.

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Life! course DVD

Preparation for the development of the Life! course DVD to accompany delivery of the Life! course using the new participant workbook has already commenced.

Input and assistance of facilitators will be sought to further develop this valuable resource.

If you have any queries or comments, please feel free to address them to Kate, Evaluation & Development Coordinator, on KDelley@diabetesvic.org.au

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Recommendations for First Visits and waitlist groups management in 2011

To ensure that potential Life! program participants commence in a timely manner, it is recommended that facilitators move the participants in their First Visit and waitlist groups to an upcoming Life! group within 3 and 6 weeks respectively.

Participants should be moved:

• to a Life! group or your waitlist group within 3 weeks of a First Visit participant being created in your First Visit group
• to a Life! group within 6 weeks of having been in a waitlist group

To assist facilitators with this recommendation, from 14 February 2011, periodical reviews of the length of time a participant remains in either a First Visit or a waitlist group will be conducted.

If any participants are found to have exceeded the recommended time in either of the groups, we may contact the facilitator to discuss the best action to ensure the participant receives the appropriate attention, be this allocation to:

• another Life! group
• telephone health coaching 
• the DA–Vic waitlist.

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Life! Telephone Health Coaching – a participant’s perspective

Sixty-seven year old Bob Richardson knew he had high blood pressure, he had been on medication for it for many years, but he didn’t know that he was at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

After moving house, routine blood tests through a new doctor revealed that Bob had raised blood glucose and cholesterol levels. He was also carrying some extra weight.

“You don’t have diabetes right now, but you’re getting there,” said Bob Richardson’s new doctor.

Bob lives in a rural area and it was difficult for him to get to the next course that was scheduled to run in his region, as it was about an hour’s drive away from where he lives.

“I don’t think I would have done it (a course). I hate driving up those mountains it is a long, long way away…It really wasn’t an option.”

So instead of waiting for a course to be scheduled closer to his location, Bob was able to take part in the Life! Taking Action on Diabetes Telephone Health Coaching (THC) service.

“Because I couldn’t get to anywhere close,; they said, ‘we’ll do it over the phone’. So a week or so later Mark (the phone coach) rang me and every month he rang me up and recommended things I could do, that would improve things.”

“After the first phone call he said, well what can you do? And I said, I’ve been thinking about walking. Which doesn’t help – thinking about it. I said I’d do half an hour a day.”

Bob was very lucky not to have been diagnosed with diabetes. There was still a chance to delay or even prevent the disease.

“I needed to take some action to prevent it happening,” Bob says. 

“When you get to my age you start to think about what you should be doing,” says Bob. “I’d been thinking about walking and thinking about giving up the smokes and I’m conscious of the fact that I should be drinking more water, but (the telephone coach) highlighted the need to start doing it.”

Bob says his health coach’s suggestions were, “easy things”.

“If he had of said, you have to walk two hours a day,” says Bob, “that just wouldn’t have happened. But half an hour a day suited me right down to the ground.”

Bob now takes regular walks to the local shopping centre and back. He’s cut down on sweet biscuits and cigarettes, with a view to stopping altogether; his blood glucose levels, cholesterol and weight are all down, and his risk of developing type 2 diabetes has been reduced.

“It’s not that difficult,” says Bob with a smile.

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The Life! group course still has the strongest evidence base and is the first option offered to participants. Telephone based support is offered only if the client cannot (or does not want to) attend a course.

Do you have participants who are more suited to THC than a Life! course? Please record this on the referral and forward to Central Referral by fax on 03 9667 1757 or contact via email on life@diabetesvic.org.au 

Any enquiries about THC should be directed to Theresa at Kinect on 03 8320 0127 or twhalen@kinectaustralia.org.au

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