Telephone Health Coaching Support

An innovative telephone health coaching service for residents of the Illawarra and Shoalhaven was launched last week by the Minister of Health and Medical Research, Jillian Skinner.

The new service is part of the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District's (ISLHD) Connecting Care strategy to better support people with chronic diseases. These patients receive individually tailored, on-going telephone coaching support from registered nurses and allied health professional to help  them implement strategies that improve adherence to medical advice and tackle risk factors.

As part of the Connecting Care Program, Healthways Australia has been contracted by ISLHD to run the telephone health coaching service from their base in North Ryde.

The program targets people with diseases such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension. These conditions result in the most frequent presentations to hospital, drive the highest health care cost, and respond best to improved care coordination and self-management support.

 Individuals will be helped to better manage their regime, adhere to their GP care plan and make behavioural changes related to nutrition, smoking or exercise.

This service is part of the Connecting Care Program which is overseen by Franca Facci (Illawarra) and Simone Jones (Shoalhaven). Connecting Care also funds 3 Care Facilitators based in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven Divisions of General Practice (Liz Lucas, Karen Sanders and Karin Robinson).

If you would like more information about how the telephone support service could help support people in your practice, come to an information session on Wednesday the 14th of September at 2pm and the IDGP (afternoon tea provided!)

For More information contact Franca Facci on (02) 4253 4130 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Health Minister, Jillian Skinner, discusses the benefits of the new program with a patient from the ISLHD together with Healthways registered nurse, Molly Pullukaran.

Health Minister, Jillian Skinner, discusses the benefits of the new program with a patient from the ISLHD together with Healthways registered nurse, Molly Pullukaran.