Rebecca Cachia Fearne
The World Health Organisation has long emphasized the need for health promotive strategies to form the backbone of a national health system. The bid to ensure that health systems are accessible and sustainable, enable opportunities for creative interventions that empower persons to sustain a good state of health and maximise their potential.
Our fast-paced often hectic routines have reinforced certain lifestyle trends or behaviours that are conducive to ill-health in the short- and long-term with increasing morbidity and mortality. While in the past, infectious diseases were the major challenge to our healthcare system, today we are dealing with chronic diseases, an ageing population and increasing healthcare costs - all pressing needs that require long-term solutions.
The Primary Health Care Department is supported by the Ministry for Health in its endeavour to ensure that persons keep healthier for a longer time by encouraging positive health behaviours including that of maintaining a healthy weight. The Lifestyle Clinics within the community aim to address both the national obesity and chronic disease policies and fulfil both the principle of offering holistic and seamless care within the community, therefore closer to where people live and work, as well as offering a proactive and preventive approach towards the health of individuals.
The lifestyle clinics, run by nurses who are specialised at post-graduate level in community nursing, offer an individualised and holistic health needs assessment of persons with the aim of identifying current or future risks to their health. Once these risks are ascertained and discussed with the client, an action plan on how these risks can be reduced is mutually agreed with the client.
Very often health risks result from health behaviours and therefore merit strategic interventions that support health behaviour change. Strategies such as motivational interviewing are often used to ascertain the client's readiness to undertake change. The client is thoroughly encouraged to take a proactive role towards their health and while the person is made aware of the identified risks to their health, they are also fully involved in the choice of which health risks to tackle first.
Other health risks may be the direct result of familial history or past health issues and therefore may require medical monitoring or screening interventions. Therefore, clear referral pathways enable the guiding of clients who require further support to existing health services according to their respective identified needs.
The whole process encourages the implementation of strategies that are acceptable, manageable and realistic to the person in order to increase the chances of success. The intended outcomes of the service are to intervene early and to postpone the onset of disease as much as possible or to encourage self-management of disease where this is already present. This, in turn, will decrease the costly levels of intervention that are sometimes required when advanced disease has set in, thereby increasing the quality of life of individuals.
The service was launched in the locality of San Ġwann in July 2014 and has now expanded to many other localities including the island of Gozo. The district clinics of Żurrieq, Żabbar, Gudja, Tarxien, Msida, St Paul's Bay, Mosta area, Kerċem and Għarb are all locations at which a person may opt to access the service which is free of charge.
As a strategy to increase accessibility, a self-referral system has been implemented thus ensuring that those who want to tackle their health issues may have unbridled access to do so. Persons making use of the clinic must be over 18 years of age and are assured of complete confidentiality as a thorough assessment would require honest cooperation from the person in order to ensure an accurate health assessment.
Any person who would like to attend the clinic can call their respective health centre in order to leave their details. They will then be contacted by the respective nurse who will be managing the client and who will set an apointment date.
Alternatively, interested persons may also send an email to [email protected], leaving their details and request an appointment at the lifestyle clinic. During this month, as part of the Healthy Weight for Life campaign, priority will be given to persons who are concerned about risks to their health arising from weight issues.
Ms Cachia Fearne is a Practice Nurse within the Primary Health Care Department