NHS England Diabetes Prevention Program – Know Your Risk Tool

A record number of people in the UK are living with Type 2 Diabetes. This figure has more than doubled since 1996. Sadly, many people will develop Type 2 Diabetes, simply because they don’t know Type 2 Diabetes is preventable through lifestyle changes.

Type 2 Diabetes can be a very serious condition but there are lots of things you can do to reduce your risk of developing it. To reduce your chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes, NHS England has developed the National Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP).

The NDPP is a FREE behaviour change programme where people learn about, diet, physical activity and strategies to improve their overall health, all aimed at reducing their risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

The programme consists of a mixture of one-to-one and group sessions delivered by specially trained health and wellbeing coaches. Throughout the programme participants learn how to prevent diabetes by incorporating healthier eating, physical activity, problem-solving, stress-reduction and coping skills into their daily lives.

Normally, people access the programme through their GP however, due to the pandemic and the subsequent pressure that our GP practices are facing, for a limited time we have enabled a self-referral option via the Diabetes UK ‘Know Your Risk Score’ – a checklist of questions that can determine a person’s risk factors – This has also enabled the programme to become more accessible to people within the area. The risk tool can be accessed via the link below:  https://riskscore.diabetes.org.uk/start

More information about the programme can be found at https://preventing-diabetes.co.uk/suffolk-north-east-essex/. If you would like to know more or would like help promoting this to your community please feel free to get in touch with Suffolk & North East Essex Engagement Officer Robert Perrement at Robert.perrement@nhs.net