Empowering participation year 3

What was the project about?

Peer support is often overlooked as an important component of chronic disease management. In the third and final year of our work in this area, we focused our efforts in raising awareness of the value and power of peer support and continued to build the capacity and confidence of peer leaders, staff and health professionals to deliver quality peer support in Victoria.   

You can read more about year one and two of this project. 

Who did we partner with?

We partnered with a diverse range of condition-specific organisations and their peer support groups, North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network and Royal Australasian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).

This project was funded by the Department of Health and Human Services Health Conditions Support Grant. 

How did we go about it?

We ran two regional forums for existing and potential peer support group leaders. We also delivered training for health professionals and developed two video clips capturing the value of peer support in chronic disease management. 

What was achieved?

Regional forums

The regional forums were held in Shepparton and Traralgon. Over 55 peer leaders came together to share and learn from each other’s experiences in offering peer support in their local communities. Topics for discussion ranged from advocacy to social media, group dynamics, delegation and succession planning, and community engagement.

Health professional training

We partnered with North West Melbourne Primary Health Network to run a RACGP accredited training session for health professionals. The aim was to upskill general practitioners and other health professionals in a partnership-based patient centred approach to sustainable chronic disease self-management. Peer support was offered as a critical component for facilitating sustainable chronic disease management.

Twenty-five health professionals attended the consumer-led training. A handy resource has since been developed to assist health professionals to offer peer support as a facilitator of sustainable chronic disease self-management.  

Peer support videos and podcast

We recognised very early in this project the need to raise awareness among consumers, careres and health professionals of the value and power of peer support in chronic disease care. So we worked with seven condition-specific organisations, five peer support groups, a general practitioner and The Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes (ACBRD) to bring these videos to life. 

Finally, there is a podcast available on iTunes of our interview with Dr Jessica Browne, Senior Research Fellow at ACBRD on the benefits and evidence of peer support.

When did we do the project?

February 2015 – February 2016

For more information

Esther Lim