People living with chronic disease will soon have better access to a range of support programs designed to help them better manage their conditions.
The Rudd Government has approved the allocation of a total of $13.1 million to 82 organisations to deliver specific chronic disease self-management and lifestyle risk modification programs in communities and regions throughout Australia.
Already 2.5 million Australians suffer from a chronic disease, with this number predicted to rise to 3.5 million by 2016.
The recent National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report found that around 70 per cent of our health care budget is consumed by chronic conditions that are potentially preventable (such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental disorders and diabetes), and that 10 per cent of hospital stays could have been avoided if better care had been provided earlier.
The Rudd Government is investing more than $872 million in preventative health - more than any other Australian government in history - to keep people healthier for longer.
* The 82 projects will concentrate on three areas:
* The education of health professionals in chronic disease self-management
* Embedding chronic disease self-management into the health professional curriculum and
* Education to reduce the risks of people developing a chronic disease and to help those with chronic disease to better manage their condition.
Funding recipients include:
* Queensland University of Technology - six grants to support a number of programs, including the evaluation of a new and flexible method for supporting exercise-based lifestyle changes in chronic disease, using wearable monitoring technology.
* The Australian Rural Health Education Network for the implementation of a web-based teaching and learning resource.
* The National Ageing Research Institute to develop and evaluate a ‘Positive Ageing' self-management program aimed at people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds at risk of developing chronic disease.
* St George Hospital Cardiac Rehabilitation and Heart Failure Services to develop a multilingual audiovisual chronic disease self-management resource.
In selecting the projects the Government targeted specific groups that would reap significant benefits from expanded assistance and services. These included people from culturally and linguistically diverse populations, people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage, children and adolescents and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
A list of completed projects is available from the Prime Minister's Office.