Health Coach Clinic to help victims of unhealthy lifestyle

The Primary Health Care Corporation’s Department of Preventive Health and Wellness Programmes has launched a unique service, the Health Coach Clinic.It aims to empower patients suffering from unhealthy lifestyles, obesity, and chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome, to improve their quality of lives by adopting healthy habits and behaviours.The health coach clinic is available, under the care of health care professionals trained in the field of nutrition, health sciences and coaching, in seven health centres affiliated to the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), namely: Leabaib, Rawdat Al Khail, Umm Salal, Muaither, Al Wajba, Al Ruwais and Al Khor.Dr Sarah Rashid Musa, community medicine specialist and wellness centre in charge at Rawdat Al Khail Health Centre, stated that individuals can benefit from the Health Coach Clinic and obtain referral through the healthy lifestyle clinic, after undergoing clinical evaluation and necessary laboratory tests, in addition to lifestyle assessment. Continuity of care is ensured through a three-month journey with a health coach who closely monitors the progress and improvement of the patient's condition. As Dr Sarah explained, it is very important to consider individual differences, coping ability, risk factors, environmental impact, self-image, and patients' priorities when developing a plan and duration of treatment.Jollanar Khankan, a health coach at Rawdat Al Khail Health Centre, explained that the clinic deals with a variety of cases and adopts multiple methods of behaviour modification. The goal is to create a structured and supportive partnership with patients to increase their self-confidence and self-efficacy.It is based on each patient’s evaluation of lifestyle components (such as: dietary habits, water and fluid intake, physical activity, sleep patterns, stress coping skills, and tobacco consumption) in addition to an analysis of body mass and components (water inside and outside cells, the total percentage of water in the body, fat mass, visceral fat, muscle mass and internal metabolic rate). Through a dedicated device, an individual plan is developed using a patient-centred approach.