DAP+: Supporting the psychological well-being of people with diabetes

Abstract

On average, Australians living in rural and remote areas have shorter lives, higher levels of disease and poorer access to and use of health services, compared with people living in urban areas. Diabetes related avoidable admissions are 12 times more likely and deaths are twice as high in rural and remote Australia. People with T2D are at higher risk of developing mental health issues like mood, eating and addiction disorders (Britneff et al., 2013). Approximately one in every five T2D patients have at least one mental health problem (Guerrero Fernandez de Alba et al., 2020) and people with T2D are 2-3 times more likely to have depression, however only 25-50% are diagnosed and treated (Bedescu et al., 2016). A need exists to better support practitioners in rural communities to develop and build upon their existing processes and tools to support people with a diabetes diagnosis. A large-scale implementation trial is being funded by Colonial Foundation in the Hunter New England region. It is a collaboration between the LHD, University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute. The DAP+ project introduces three integrated lifestyle programs to support patients in diet, exercise and psychological well-being. The focus of this presentation is the psychological well-being component. After testing uptake and usability for purpose of two of our current programs (MoRe and SHADE) we will work with the multidisciplinary team to design and roll-out a tailored program and suite of resources for T2D patients to support mental health, with a view to national scalability.