Diabetes Healthy Living Project

This project is MCWH's most recent response to the rise of Type 2 diabetes in some overseas-born people resident in Australia.

This innovative pilot project aimed to increase the capacity of immigrant and refugee women to make healthy lifestyle choices so to minimise their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

Through initial consultation of key stakeholders and by reviewing the available literature MCWH gained a better understanding of culturally-appropriate diabetes prevention interventions for immigrant and refugee communities, particularly women. A comprehensive diabetes prevention program for immigrant and refugee women that utilised a narrative-based approach was then developed. This gendered approach to diabetes prevention using storytelling as the main education strategy was the first of its kind in the world. The program included training bilingual health educators and the delivery of diabetes prevention education sessions for immigrant and refugee women.

Following the BHE training diabetes prevention education sessions were delivered in eight languages: Amharic, Arabic, Italian, Macedonian, Sudanese Arabic, Tagalog, Turkish and Vietnamese. The diabetes prevention education sessions incorporated culturally-appropriate strategies such as storytelling, multilingual visual and written resources, and food-based activities. Women's responses to the education sessions were extremely positive, with women reporting increased awareness of the importance of diabetes as well as the role of healthy eating and an active lifestyle in preventing and managing diabetes. Women also reported discussing diabetes with family members, adopting healthy cooking practices, and undergoing diabetes screening.

Immigrant and refugee women's capacity to engage in healthy living and to encourage their families to do the same can be significantly improved. As the project confirmed, this can be achieved by a gendered approach to diabetes prevention education that uses culturally-appropriate strategies such as storytelling, multilingual resources and food-based activities, and is delivered by trained bilingual health educators.

A copy of the Diabetes Healthy Living full report will be available online soon.