Project 459721

The CHANGE Health Community Program is a program to help families "re-learn" healthy living by providing lifestyle intervention programming in four main areas (physical activity, nutrition, mental health, and social connections). Targeting Alberta families, this innovative health care program responds to the need for health care to take a community-relevant, preventative, and holistic approach to health and wellness. The program uses a preventative, proactive, community-based model of care that focuses on lifelong wellness, which is in direct contrast to our current disease management models of care. Supported by Alberta Blue Cross, a pilot study has shown the that The CHANGE Health Community program can be implemented with positive results. It is now important to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention within a variety of settings and evaluating why the intervention works and for whom with a focus on implementing in culturally diverse population include indigenous families. If the CHANGE Health Community Program intervention can be shown effective in decreasing diabetes risk in diverse settings, widespread implementation could save millions of dollars for Canadians and the health care system relating to medications and procedures for this expensive medical condition.