Diabetes and WELLbeing | 2 Mers Seas Zeeën

DWELL

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Diabetes and WELLbeing

Priority Axis

Technological and Social Innovation

Specific objective

Social Innovation

Lead partner

The Health and Europe Centre

Start Date

01/08/2016

End Date

31/03/2023

Project budget

3 211 641

ERDF amount

1 926 984

ERDF rate

60%

    About

    Common challenge

    Diabetes is a long term non communicable disease of huge societal & economic concern not just a clinical issue. Type 2 diabetes (90% of those with the disease) is acquired in later life & can be successfully controlled through healthy lifestyle choices. In 2012, approx 32m people in the EU had diabetes. On average 10% of state healthcare expenditure is on treating it & related complications. Research shows that intensive self-management is required with currently no standard approach. Initiatives to increase effective, low cost self-management are essential to the sustainability of treatment.

    Main Achievements

    Diabetes is a long term non-communicable disease with high costs to patients, health services & society, & for which there is currently no standardised approach to self-management. DWELL is a holistic programme that encourages & motivates people with Type 2 Diabetes to manage their condition better. The DWELL partners have worked together to design & develop the DWELL 12 week patient support programme, staff training programme & support tools.

    The DWELL 12 week patient support programme consists of 4 core modules: Education, Nutrition, Physical activity & Wellbeing, & at the heart of all of these is peer support, motivational interviewing & self management. These key elements all help to put the patient back in the driving seat of their condition, motivating them to make long-term lifestyle changes to manage their diabetes successfully & reducing their risk of developing long-term complications. To date 480 people have been recruited to the DWELL 12 week programme.

    The staff training programme consists of 5 modules: The DWELL approach, Understanding diabetes - common language, Facilitation skills, Motivational interviewing & Evaluation tools. As DWELL is a holistic programme, it does require a change in thinking of the way to treat type 2 diabetes...a change from a medical approach to a holistic approach. 139 staff have received training so far along with 484 students receiving the DWELL approach training as part of their curriculum.

    There are also support tools:

    • the directory of services & online support which contains over 300 entries of local services, groups & activities which contribute to a healthier way of living, as well as information on helpful apps, healthy recipes & diabetes education
    • the Ambassadors! A key element to the DWELL programme. They helped develop & pilot the 12 week programme, promote DWELL within the community, support the programme & participants, & help to sustain DWELL beyond the end of the project.

    Preliminary data analysis enabled interim evaluation results to be presented at the World Congress on Public Health in October 2020, with abstracts published in the European Journal of Public Health

    Partnership

    Partners

    Blackthorn Trust

    Arteveldehogeschool

    Kinetic Analysis

    Medway Community Healthcare CIC

    Kent County Council

    Canterbury Christ Church University

    Centre Hospitalier de Douai

    Outputs

    Output title
    Type
    Target
    URL / Download
    31/12/2016

    DWELL

    Theme: Innovative social servicesHealth & Wellbeing
    Type: Method/service
    Target: Health institutions