Liva Healthcare and Living Well Taking Control (LWTC) have announced new contract wins as part of the Healthier You: NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP) with NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).
Liva Healthcare will offer a digital service to complement LWTC’s face-to-face intervention programme in delivering Type 2 diabetes and obesity prevention.
Type 2 diabetes is one of the most-significant healthcare challenges of our time and complications cost the NHS over £10billion every year.
But there is strong evidence that its onset can be prevented with an improved diet, an increase in physical activity, and successful weight loss.
The Healthier You programme was officially launched in 2016 to support people at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
This unique relationship-based approach makes hard-won lifestyle changes long lasting and sustainable
Since then more than 400,000 have been referred into the programme, with referral only available through their GP.
The national rollout of the NHS DPP programme over the last year has seen face-to-face providers supported by digital partners.
Liva Healthcare and LWTC are two such partners that work together on NHS contracts to deliver an integrated programme for patients.
Partnering for success
Building on their extensive combined experience, Liva Healthcare and LWTC have developed a comprehensive service for patients living with pre-diabetes across the UK.
The combined service will be provided free of charge to patients at risk of Type 2 diabetes through a referral from their GP.
Around 5,000 patients are expected to be treated in across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and Dorset through this latest partnership over the course of a year.
Liva Healthcare provides patients with access to a free, dedicated, personal health coach for professional guidance, support and empathy.
The regular coaching sessions help patients tackle chronic conditions through sustainable lifestyle and behaviour changes.
It has been proven to halt and reverse the progression of Type 2 diabetes.
LWTC is a Limited Liability Partnership between Birmingham-based social enterprise, Health Exchange CIC, and Exeter-based charity, Westbank Community Health and Social Care.
Each organisation has expertise in supporting individuals to change their lives by establishing new patterns of behaviour to improve their health and wellbeing.By providing a digital solution, the Liva programme is scalable and cost effective and supports health professionals to drive real change in their communities
As a non-profit organisation, LWTC is the only third-sector provider in the NHS DPP programme.
The Liva and LWTC programme is based on a combination of digital and traditional face-to-face support.
It consists of 13 sessions across nine months with the core programme structured and designed to facilitate peer-to-peer learning in a small classroom setting.
And patients are allowed to bring a friend or family member, something which is key to their experience and progression.
Sessions cover key topics such as understanding the risks of diabetes, behaviour change techniques, healthy lifestyles and mental wellbeing.
The interventions will be delivered by locally-recruited teams in Dorset and Shropshire, utilising their local knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the best-possible health outcomes.
Alongside this, patients will be able to access the digital programme through Liva Healthcare and will receive a dedicated, personal coach for nine months.
The digital behaviour change programme begins with a personal video meeting between patient and coach.
Throughout the service, the patient and the coach will have around 19 personal coaching sessions delivered through the app, which supports patients with behaviour change tools such as smart goal setting and plans, lifestyle tracking, video communication and online peer-to-peer support to encourage participation and lasting lifestyle change.
Rune Bech, co-founder and UK head of Liva Healthcare, said: “We are seeing remarkable results from people going through Liva’s programme.
“Patients with chronic conditions like obesity, pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes have been able to halt, or even reverse, their conditions simply by providing personal health coaching.
“This unique relationship-based approach makes hard-won lifestyle changes long lasting and sustainable.
A better awareness of the causes and prevention of the condition is crucial and could be the difference between a patient developing Type 2 diabetes or avoiding it completely
“By providing a digital solution, the Liva programme is scalable and cost effective and supports health professionals to drive real change in their communities.
“This new partnership with the NHS and LWTC will help us help even more people live longer and better, which is why we go to work every morning.”
Gail Fortes Mayer, programmes director at NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin CCGs, added: “A better awareness of the causes and prevention of the condition is crucial and could be the difference between a patient developing Type 2 diabetes or avoiding it completely.”