The All Wales Diabetes Prevention Programme (AWDPP) has officially been launched during Diabetes Awareness week (13th-19th June) by the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Lynne Neagle.
The new national programme will offer targeted support to people at an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and will initially be delivered via GP practices involved in the first phase of the programme nationwide.
The AWDPP sees dedicated, trained healthcare support workers, with oversight from dietitians, deliver advice to people who have had a blood test that shows they are at an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The healthcare support workers will provide help to individuals to understand their level of risk and support them to reduce it through key changes to their diet and level of physical activity.
The programme has been designed and led by Public Health Wales and funded through a £1m annual investment by the Welsh Government’s Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales Strategy.
The Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Lynne Neagle who visited staff and patients in Port Talbot said:
“The new programme will focus on prevention, providing tailored care and support at an earlier stage, resulting in better care for patients and less people requiring urgent care. Our Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales strategy focuses on helping people to make healthier choices and this new programme will support this vital work and help reduce the number of people living with Type 2 diabetes in Wales”
Tracey Cooper, Chief Executive of Public Health Wales, said:
“More than 200,000 people in Wales are living with diabetes, and nine in 10 of them have type 2. Type 2 diabetes can have a severe impact on individuals and their families.
“Evidence suggests that, by supporting people to make key changes to their lifestyle, in over half of people living with type 2 diabetes, their condition could be prevented or delayed. The AWDPP will support people who are at an increased risk of type 2 diabetes to make changes that could reduce this risk.”
Dr Amrita Jesurasa, Consultant in Public Health Medicine at Public Health Wales, said:
“The AWDPP builds on excellent work done locally by GPs to create a standardised approach to diabetes prevention for the whole of Wales. The programme is aligned with NICE guidance, the All Wales Weight Management Pathway, prudent healthcare principles and insights from behavioural science.
“The AWDPP has been developed in consultation with healthcare professionals, third sector organisations and people living with type 2 diabetes. Its impact, reach and effectiveness will be evaluated from the start, and we will use learning from this first phase of the programme’s rollout to inform its development going forwards.”
The AWDPP is being rolled out in phases with an embedded evaluation, which will assess the outcomes of the programme and the effectiveness of the intervention. In the first half of 2022, the programme is being rolled out in two primary care clusters in each of Wales’ seven health board areas.
As per NICE guidance, GPs and other health professionals already risk assess people to see if they are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes and if so, they will arrange a blood test to confirm if someone has the condition or is at high risk of developing it.
To coincide with the programme’s launch, Public Health Wales has published the All Wales Diabetes Prevention Programme Protocol, which provides detailed information and support to professionals involved in the programme’s delivery.
For further information, please contact PHW.AWDPP@wales.nhs.uk
