Global well-being improvement leader Healthways (NASDAQ: HWAY) announced today that it has been awarded a contract to provide Australia's largest health coaching program, Get Healthy Information and Coaching Service® (Get Healthy Service), in New South Wales, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and South Australia for the next three years. Responsibility for the management and delivery of the services will be transferred to Healthways, which was selected after a competitive procurement process and will begin service delivery beginning in January 2014. Developed by the New South Wales government as Australia's first government-run, individually tailored health coaching service, the Get Healthy Service will be available to approximately 10 million individuals over the age of 18.
The Get Healthy Service is a telephone-based health coaching service aimed at supporting adults to make lifestyle changes to improve their healthy eating and levels of physical activity and to help reach and maintain a healthy weight. Qualified health coaches provide information and ongoing, personalized support designed to help individuals achieve lasting behavior change in these areas. Already available in New South Wales, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland, the service will be expanded to South Australia in January.
Launched in 2009, the Get Healthy Service is a joint Australian state and territory initiative under the National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health. The partnership seeks to address the rising prevalence of lifestyle-related chronic disease by laying the foundations for healthy behaviors in the daily lives of Australians through settings such as communities, early childhood education and care environments, schools and workplaces, supported by national social marketing campaigns.
"Promoting good health is fundamental to Australia's future social and economic well-being," said Louise Sylvan, chief executive officer of The Australian National Preventive Health Agency. "The Australian Government and state and territory governments continue to work hard to address the behavioral and environmental challenges that have contributed to the significant rise in obesity over the past decades. Evaluation of Get Healthy Service, the largest health coaching service available to the Australian population, shows that people want to succeed in protecting their health and that prevention works."
The escalating prevalence of chronic diseases, estimated to be responsible for around 80% of the total burden of disease in Australia, was the impetus behind creating the Get Healthy Service. Research has proven not only that healthy eating, physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight can prevent and even reverse chronic illness, but also that telephone and web-based coaching are highly successful in helping individuals overcome the challenge of creating and sustaining these important lifestyle changes.
Making lifestyle changes is often easier said than done, and the journey can be challenging. The Get Healthy Service has therefore been developed to support people to make these lifestyle changes. Healthways' ability to advance the goals of the Get Healthy Service is reflected in its extensive history of scientific research and innovation in well-being improvement through behavior change, its proven track record of delivering high-impact programs, its demonstrated commitment to high quality clinical care and its ability to scale programs to very large sizes, which it has already done successfully in the Australian market.
