Living Positively A personal health coach pilot project

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Living PositivelyA personal health coach pilot
project

• Health Coach program experience with PLWHA
• I Coutts (BSW), MAASW

Living Positively is a joint project of VAC/GMHC
and PLWHA Victoria
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• Background
• Pilot project
• One-on-one support
• Help define personal health goals
• Provide support and encouragement
• Question
• Is providing one-on-one intensive assistance as
  effective in changing behaviours and increasing
  healthy living skills as broad based
  community-based health promotion programs?

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• Theoretical Framework
• STRENGTHS/EMPOWERMENT
• Everything you do as a worker will be
  predicated, in some way, on helping to discover
  and embellish, explore and exploit clients
  strengths and resources in the service of
  assisting them to achieve their goals
• (Blundo 2001)
• SOLUTION FOCUSSED
• HEALTH COACHING
• Helping clients achieve positive health and
  lifestyle outcomes through attitude and behaviour
  change

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• Practice tools and methods
• MEANING
• Exploring meaning and the myriad of ways of
  interpreting our experiences can shed a different
  light on events and open up new possibilities
• (McCashen 2005)
• Effective communication
• Relationship building
• Health coaching tools
• Regular monitoring, use of diaries
• Skill development
• Collaborations/partnerships

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• Case Study
• Demographic summary
• Male
• 40yrs
• Bisexual
• Not currently in a relationship
• Income DSP, part-time work
• Renting privately
• Health fair
• HIV positive since 2002
• Not currently on anti-retroviral treatments

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• Case Study - Background
• Identified health goals
• Perform regular exercise and build muscle
• Eat meals more regularly
• Reduce stress and be more calm
• Return to regular work or study
• Quit smoking

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• Case Study Interventions and methods
• Build trusting relationship
• Look for strengths
• Focus on success
• Provide material assistance

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• Case Study Outcomes
• Current situation
• Feeling healthier, stronger - regularly attending
  gym
• Decreased stress levels more positive/motivated
• Eating healthy meals daily increased weight,
  more confident in appearance
• Recently accepted into university
• My ever growing motivation to improve every
  aspect of my life is taking me places and
  achieving goals that I had previously avoided
• The social connection of being around similarly
  motivated people has been invaluablethe project
  helped me regain the self-confidence and courage
  that I needed

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• Evaluations and feedback
• Some narratives from participants
• The most important and effective role the
  project played was in giving me a focus on my
  health and well being and making me feel I was
  doing something to help myself
• I liked the feeling that someone was taking an
  interest over time and getting to know your
  particular situation. With HIV often the services
  and advice can feel a bit disjointed, so it
  really helps to feel theres someone there who
  can help you do a bit of a holistic stock-take of
  what you are doing and where you are at

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• Challenges and reflections
• Reflections
• Relationship building key to outcomes
• Knowledge health coaching techniques
• Knowledge resources/networking/collaborations
• Seeing success
• Challenges
• Need to be motivated to make change
• Each person moves at their own pace
• Coaching vs. counselling

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• Health coaching -
• It can work for you!
•  
• Have you ever thought about making some positive
  changes to you life? Or considered the benefits
  of having a health coach to support you in this
  process?
•  
• The Living Positively Project is a program that
  offers personal health coaching to help you
  achieve your health related goals. If you are HIV
  positive and looking for some assistance in
  making some life changes then this program may be
  for you.
•  
• In the Living Positively Project you will be
  provided with intensive one-on-one assistance to
  help you meet your health goals through support
  and monitoring, by way of regular meetings with
  your health coach, who will provide support and
  organise for both group and/or individual skill
  development programs to take place.
•  
• The items you may want to address could include
  (but are not limited to) such issues as
• ? Better diet and nutrition
• ? Stopping smoking
• ? A personalised exercise/fitness plan
• ? Stress management
• ? Building better relationships
•  
• Here are some comments from people who have
  already participated in the project
• A life changing experience