Liva Healthcare and Living Well Taking Control (LWTC) have today been announced by NHS England as a joint provider in the Healthier You: NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP). With Liva offering a digital service to complement LWTC’s face-to-face intervention programme in delivering diabetes and obesity prevention for the next five years.
Type 2 diabetes is one of the biggest healthcare challenges of our time. Diabetes and its complications cost the NHS over £10 billion every year to treat, with one in six patients in hospital now having diabetes. There is strong evidence that the onset of Type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed in those at high risk through improved quality of diet, an increase in physical activity and successful weight loss.
Partnering for success
Building on their extensive combined experience, Liva Healthcare and LWTC have built a comprehensive and innovative service for pre-diabetic patients across the UK.
Liva Healthcare is an innovative digital health platform designed to tackle chronic diseases through changes in lifestyle and behaviour. The programme has been proven to halt and reverse Type 2 diabetes by helping patients change their lifestyle. Its platform supports patients in monitoring and managing their lifestyle with the help of a free, dedicated personal health coach.
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. As a Community Interest Company and charity, LWTC is the only third sector provider in the Healthier You programme.
Liva and LWTC both participated in previous pilots of the Healthier You programme.
Healthier You: NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme
The Healthier You programme was officially launched in 2016 to support people who are at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. The programme, which gives advice on dieting, exercise and healthy lifestyle, is being doubled in size over the next few years to treat around 200,000 people annually as part of the NHS Long Term Plan’s renewed focus on prevention.
The national roll-out of the programme sees traditional providers supported by digital partners, in order to reach those of working age who might otherwise struggle to attend face-to-face appointments. The combined Liva Healthcare and LWTC service will be provided free of charge to pre-diabetic patients through GP referral.
Face-to-face
The face-to-face service provided by LWTC consists of 13 sessions across nine months, each lasting between one-two hours (a minimum 16 hours in total). The core programme is structured and designed to facilitate peer-to-peer learning, with a maximum of 20 people per session which allows room for participants to bring a friend or family member that may be key to their experience.
Sessions will cover topics such as understanding the risks of diabetes, behaviour change techniques, healthy lifestyles and mental wellbeing. The face-to-face behavioural interventions will be delivered by locally recruited teams, utilising their local knowledge, skills and experience which to achieve the best possible health outcomes for participants.
Digital
Patients accessing the digital programme through Liva Healthcare will receive a dedicated coach for 12 months to help and assist them in achieving a healthier lifestyle. The digital behaviour change programme starts out with a personal face-to-face meeting between patient and coach. Throughout the year, the patient and the coach will have around 26 digital personal coaching sessions. The Liva coaching platform and patient app supports the patient 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.
Simon Pickup, UK managing director at Liva Healthcare, said:
“Liva’s strong results from the pilot of the digital stream of the Healthier You: NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme proves just how important lifestyle intervention is to supporting those at risk of Type 2 diabetes. Technology facilitates these important lifestyle changes and makes any programme highly scalable.
A close relationship between health coach and patient through our platform can change lives. With our easy-to-use programme, patients will have direct ongoing contact with their personal coach, motivational tools and help from an online support group.”
Stuart Brown, service manager at Living Well Taking Control, said:
“We’re very pleased to be able to continue as provider of the Healthier You: NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, helping those within the most deprived communities across England make changes for life. Our continued focus will be on delivering a local service delivered by local people designed to meet the needs of local communities.”
Professor Jonathan Valabhji, national clinical director of diabetes and obesity, at NHS England said:
“Around two thirds of adults and one third of children are now overweight or obese, driving higher and higher rates of Type 2 diabetes that we are now focusing huge efforts to address, as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan.
“I’m delighted that our work so far in this area has been producing really positive results. This weight loss and glucose reduction is promising – we hope to help many more of those who are at risk of Type 2 diabetes to not get it in the first place.”
