Liva Healthcare selected as NHS partner to deliver first of its kind Digital Weight Management Programme
What is the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme?
The new NHS Digital Weight Management Programme offers remote access to weight management services for those living with obesity, diabetes or hypertension or both. With three levels of support and a choice of providers, the innovative programme is designed to offer service users a personalised level of intervention to help them manage their weight, improve quality of life and improve long term health outcomes.
Three levels of support offered within the programme
The programme features three levels of intensity for weight management support and a tailored choice of providers. Delivering highly personalised and tailored digital health coaching programmes, Liva Healthcare has been selected as a level three service provider in the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme. Being tailored for those with a need for intensive support, level three is the most comprehensive service level with providers offering human-centric interventions for people who require a more personalised and supported journey.
The Liva experience
With tailormade professional guidance and ongoing support from a professional health coach, the Liva programmes successfully assist people to lose weight and undertake sustainable lifestyle and behavioural changes.
To kick off the 12-week programme, service users choose their own professional health coach based on personal needs and preferences and have a 45-minute live video consultation. Here, service users will get to know their personal coach, set up realistic goals and build a customised lifestyle plan together.
Throughout the programme, health coaches from Liva Healthcare will guide service users step by step towards a healthier lifestyle through the user-friendly Liva app.
Through the app, people will receive weekly coaching via videos and texts, and the coach will send custom-made nutrition advice, exercise routines, inspirational recipes, and more, all based on the personal needs of the service users and their progress. Alongside personal coaching, service users can access groups of people on the same programme, share experiences and get inspired by each other.
How does it work?
If someone is eligible, their General Practice team can refer them to the programme. They are then given access, via a text, to the Referral Hub through an automated process that triages them to the appropriate level of intervention. Once triaged, they will have a choice of provider. The system will then link to the chosen provider and pass across key information to enable that person to register for the 12-week programme.
Who is eligible for referral to the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme?
The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme is offered to adults with a diagnosis of diabetes (Type 2 or Type 1) or hypertension or both, with a BMI of 30+ kg/m2 (adjusted appropriately for ethnicity). The programme will only be accessible to those who have a smartphone or computer with internet access. You will need to have an e-mail account to access the programme and get the full benefits. This programme is delivered exclusively digitally.
What are the aims of the programme?
The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme aims to reduce health inequalities by providing additional human coaching for groups who are less likely to complete behavioural and lifestyle change programmes designed to reduce and manage their weight.
The programme is designed to add value to and complement existing weight management services whilst helping the NHS to build the evidence base around the effectiveness of short-term digital weight management interventions and to better understand what features make them most acceptable and effective for different population groups.
As a digital programme, it offers an alternative means of accessing support which, emerging evidence from the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme suggests, can perform as well as face-to-face services, with additional benefits of reaching younger people and offering increased flexibility of access. A digital offer will also align with social distancing in the context of COVID-19.
For general enquiries please email england.wmp-prevention@nhs.net
