Noncommunicable diseases News South Africa

New doctor training tool for chronic diseases

A training resource on how to advise patients on modifying their lifestyle to reduce chronic diseases is now part of the curriculum at various medical faculties around country.

Brief behavioural change counselling (BBCC), dubbed iChange4Health, aims at stemming chronic diseases of lifestyle such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, diabetes and hypertension in South Africa, which already account for close to 40% of deaths in the country annually.

The BBCC resource guide, which includes a comprehensive manual for healthcare practitioners and various other info booklets aimed at patients was researched and developed by the Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa (CDIA), Stellenbosch University and the Cancer Association of SA.

Holistic approach

Since the start of the pilot in 2014 at the university already more than 600 undergraduate medical students and about 40 doctors that are specialising in family medicine have been trained in approach, and the response to date has been overwhelming. Eight other universities that offer family medicine have this year also incorporated the BBCC into their curricula.

“It’s not just doctors that are being trained, but nurses and other healthcare staff too. We have already trained several medical officers from the public sector in the Western Cape and the Department of Health has requested that we include BBCC in a training programme for chronic care, which is a great vote of confidence from government,” says Dr Zelra Malan, postgraduate programme coordinator: division of family medicine and primary care at Stellenbosch University.

“I believe BBCC is a step in the right direction. If we continue to deal with risk factors in a piecemeal way then the results will be inconsequential. Finally, a holistic multi-behavioural intervention has been created which should be embraced by not only doctors-in-training, but all healthcare practitioners, particularly those working in the primary care sector.”

Open to all practitioners

Similar programmes have been rolled out in Australia, Canada and the USA, but it’s a first for Africa. Doctors in Namibia and Botswana have also been exposed to BBCC, and its positive effect is bound to spill over into other regions.

The BBCC training programme has been registered as a short course offered through Stellenbosch University twice yearly, which is open to all healthcare practitioners.

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