Chronic conditions are an ongoing cause of substantial ill health, disability and premature death, making them an important health concern that often requires long-term management by individuals and health professionals. The Western Sydney population has a higher prevalence of health risk factors than the Metropolitan Sydney population, including smoking, physical inactivity and obesity. These factors make them more likely to develop chronic diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, asthma and type 2 diabetes[1].
In the Western Sydney Primary Health Network area, there are over two hundred thousand households that speak a language other than English, including Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, Tagalog and more[2]. Culturally and linguistically diverse communities have been found to have poor health literacy[3] which is associated with poor health outcomes and low confidence in taking an active role in their own health management[4].
In response to these statistics, we have commissioned the Looking After Your Health initiative, run by Diabetes NSW and ACT. Looking After Your Health is available for people living in Western Sydney with, or at risk of, developing chronic health conditions. It aims to increase the awareness of risk factors for chronic conditions through a variety of education sessions and activities available in different languages.
The program demonstrated remarkable outcomes for participants during 2022, including:
- 95% of participants reported an improvement in knowledge and understanding about factors that increase the risk of chronic health problems
- 92% had increased confidence in managing risk factors associated with chronic health problems
- 96% reported being more motivated to look after their health
- 95% committed to making a healthy lifestyle change as a result of the program
- 93% became more aware of available support services to maintain a healthy lifestyle
- 97% of individuals reported an increased motivation to look after their health and make better decisions after attending face-to-face sessions[5]
Looking After Your Health: Face-to-face and Online Sessions
Looking After Your Health offers both online and face-to-face programs that aim to increase the awareness of risk factors for chronic conditions. Education and activities on short and long-term health outcomes provide useful information about topics including healthy eating, physical activity, weight management and quitting smoking.
Face-to-face programs are currently available in Arabic, Mandarin, Punjabi and Turkish and will soon be available in Hindi, Korean, Cantonese and Tagalog. Patients can register online to join the in-person sessions.
The online program is available in Mandarin, Korean, and Arabic, and English, adapted for the Filipino community.
No referral is required, however, registrations are essential for both face-to-face and online sessions.
For more information, health professionals can call 1300 342 238 or email nsw.languages@diabetesaustralia.com.au
If patients have a question about an event, they can contact the event organiser.
22 May 2023
[1] M. King, T. Usherwood, R. Brooker and J. Reath (2016), Supporting Primary Health Care Providers in Western Sydney Areas of Socio-economic Disadvantage, Canberra: Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute. Access by https://nceph.anu.edu.au/files/Supporting%20PHC%20Providers%20in%20western%20Sydney%20areas%20of%20socio-sconomic%20disadvantage.pdf
[2] Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021), Search Census Data. Accessed by https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/search-by-area
[3] H. Al Shamsi, AG. Almutairi, S. Al Mashrafi and T. Al Kalbani (2020), Implications of Language Barriers for Healthcare: A Systematic Review, Oman Medical Journal. Accessed by https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7201401/
[4] M. King, T. Usherwood, R. Brooker and J. Reath, op. cit.
[5] Looking After Your Health (2022), Quarter 4 reporting.