Background:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people are at much higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than non-Aboriginal children. Studies in WA and NSW have reported the incidence of type 2 diabetes in Aboriginal children and adolescents to be more than 6 times that in the non-Aboriginal population. This presentation will showcase a school-based diabetes prevention program, developed by Diabetes WA in collaboration with the Aboriginal community in Northam. The presentation will focus on the evolution of the ‘Strong Culture: A Road to Good Health’ program, including the metropolitan pilot, recent publishing of a resource manual and introduction of a small grants scheme.

Methods:

Integrating the Strong Culture program into school curriculum enabled the delivery of diabetes prevention and healthy lifestyle messages in a supportive and non-stigmatising environment. Students involved in the metropolitan pilot participated in a range of activities including healthy cooking, traditional games, bush tucker walks and talks from health professionals and elders. The introduction of the small grants scheme has enabled schools across WA to implement this program.

Results/Discussions:

Two Perth metropolitan primary schools successfully piloted the program using the draft resource manual. The resource was revised, expanded upon and mapped to the Australian National Curriculum Framework in early 2014 and a round of small grants were offered. Six schools from across rural and remote WA received grants to run a range of diabetes education activities based on the resource. Activities included bush tucker camps, healthy cooking activities, talks from elders and art.

Conclusions/implications:

Offering primary schools a funding source, with a comprehensive resource guide that has been mapped to the Australian National Curriculum increases a schools capacity to include diabetes prevention and healthy lifestyle messages into their lesson schedule.
Additionally, impact evaluation indicated that the participating children were able to identify the relationship between unhealthy food, lifestyle and type 2 diabetes.