Friday, March 12, 2010

Health Promotion Program

The health promotion program aims to build the capacity of general practitioners and general practice staff to take a systematic approach to plan and implement health promotion, prevention and early intervention activities.

The health promotion team is involved in a range of projects and activities including:
- Supporting practicies with the uptake of new and existing initiatives such as: Lifescripts and  preventive health assessments.
- Providing educational visits on a variety of topics for GPs, nurses and practice staff.
- Implementing studies in general practice.
- Providing opportunities for general practice to participate in community forums.
- Collaborating with State and local health services to advocate on behalf of general practice.

What’s On Offer?
There are many opportunities for health promotion and prevention in general practice. Current activities of the health promotion team are:

Consumer Engagement Strategy
The GP Network has a Consumer Engagement Strategy. The Health Promotion Officer implements this strategy and facilitates collaboration between local GPs and the community.

The strategy consists of:
- Six-monthly focus groups for gathering consumer input into general practice, the programs and services of the GP Network and local health issues.
- Health education presentations by GPs to schools, community groups and organisations on requested topics.
- Recruitment of consumer representatives for program reference groups.
- Six-monthly review of all consumer input received by the GP

Youth Health
The health promotion team collaborates with service providers, young people, consumer and community organisations and other stakeholders to facilitate young people's access to general practice services.

Childhood Obesity Study
The GP Network is involved in an NHMRC-funded study to improve the detection, assessment and treatment of obesity in children aged 4-10 years. The study aims to work with GPs and their primary care teams to test a quality improvement collaborative with Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. The study will be complete in August 2009.

Children's Weight Management Pilot Project for Practice Nurses
Following on from the work carried out in the childhood obesity study the health promotion team is implementing a pilot project aiming to increase the skills and knowledge of practice nurses (PN) in the identification of overweight/obese children aged 4-10 years, presenting in general practice. The project involves the delivery of an educational module for PNs including messages about healthy eating and physical activity, tips on how to raise the issue and looking at the definition of obesity. The health promotion team provides practical support to PNs including case studies and examples of ideas that have been trialed via the childhood obesity study.

Child Protection Health Assessment Pilot Project
A pilot project involving seven practices within the GP Network catchment is aiming to develop a system to make sure each child and young person in protective care (for the first time) has a comprehensive general practitioner health assessment and is linked in with a general practice.

Exercise Referral Pilot Program - Better Being
Better Being is a pilot program aiming to establish a physical activity referral framework within Victorian aquatic and recreation facilities, increasing the capacity of the leisure industry to work with and support primary health care. The health promotion team can assist general practice to refer patients at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes into a Lifestyle Modification Program (LMP) which incorporates an additional physical activity component.

For more information about this program visit Aquatics and Recreation Victoria website:
www.aquaticsandrecreation.org.au

The Health Promotion Team
For more information please contact the health promotion team on (03) 8878 3755 or:

Sacha L'Huillier
Senior Health Promotion Officer
slhuillier@megpn.com.au

Melissa Glogolia
Health Promotion Officer
mglogolia@megpn.com.au

Myra Purcell
Graduate Health Promotion Officer
mpurcell@megpn.com.au