Bilingual Health Educator Diabetes Prevention Project

The Bilingual Health Educators Project: Training and Resourcing for Diabetes Prevention Education is a collaboration between MCWH and Victoria University's Australian Community Centre for Diabetes (ACCD).

This project will further develop the capacity of the MCWH bilingual Health Educators (BHEs) to deliver diabetes prevention programs to immigrant and refugee women across metropolitan Melbourne. Knowledge, skills and the perspectives of the BHEs involved in The Diabetes Healthy Living Project 2008 (the pilot) will be used to further develop educational resources and training modules for delivery of diabetes prevention education sessions with women from the immigrant and refugee communities involved in the pilot project. The education packages will be tested for effectiveness and process and impact analyses will be undertaken by ACCD.

Project aims:

1. To strengthen the capacity of BHEs to support diabetes prevention strategies and initiatives for immigrant and refugee communities;
    
2. To increase the number of BHEs who have the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for inter-professional practice and collaborative care;
    
3. To facilitate networking and the sharing of information and ideas between BHEs to develop resources and methodologies for diabetes prevention and management programs, including the development of best practice principles for the training of bilingual health educators;
    
4. To promote an environment which respects and supports the contributions of BHEs who work with immigrant and refugee women on a day-to-day basis.
    

Project outcomes will include the development of culturally and linguistically appropriate resources; training session modules for BHES; a project report; and recommendations for further development in the area of diabetes prevention for immigrant and refugee women.