DWELL
Diabetes and WELLbeing
Priority Axis
Technological and Social InnovationSpecific objective
Social Innovation
Lead partner
The Health and Europe CentreContact
Begindatum
01/08/2016Einddatum
31/03/2023Project budget
3 211 641 €ERDF amount
1 926 984 €ERDF rate
60%Over
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.
Overall objective
Main outputs
Cross border approach
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