Ray Kelly – Leadership in Diabetes Care

Ray Kelly is a proud Gomeroi man and one of Australia’s leading health professionals, with over 33 years’ experience in the health and sports industries. He is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist with a Master of Teaching (PDHPE) and a Bachelor of Research where he focused on the reversal of type 2 diabetes in the Indigenous community. He is currently completing his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne School of Medicine, in Analysis of the factors contributing to successful reversal of T2DM through lifestyle change by Indigenous people in Australia.

Type 2 diabetes is one of the leading causes of the gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more than three times as likely to live with diabetes and nearly five times more likely to be hospitalised with diabetes-related complications. Rates of diabetes in central Australia are the highest reported in the world.

Ray grew up in Mt Druitt, Western Sydney in hardship, and left school in Year 10. Diabetes hit home from birth, with the death of his grandfather from a heart attack aged 52. Ray was just three weeks old. His uncle died aged 44, a victim of heart disease.

“It was always front of mind, the issues around that,” Ray said.

Always the maverick, he started funding himself to go to obesity conferences around the world, convinced that there was a better way to treat diabetes than through a cascade of drugs and insulin. “Some people thought I was reckless and careless, but it was all research-based and the outcomes were phenomenal,” Ray said. “The results were much better than you would see anywhere in the country.

Ray established his groundbreaking Too Deadly for Diabetes Program which aims to promote good nutrition, physical activity, weight loss, and lower blood glucose levels for Aboriginal people with diabetes in NSW. The program runs over 10 weeks and participants are assisted with meal planning, an exercise program, education and motivation. It has been delivered across regional NSW in Bourke, Brewarrina and Walgett, and has recently been launched in Coonamble and Dubbo and the program has grown to include regional and remote communities in the NT, Torres Strait Islander and other centres. “Within the first 14 days, many people will see dramatic changes to their blood sugar and blood pressure,” Ray says.

Following on from the success of the Too Deadly for Diabetes program, Ray reached out to several peak chronic health bodies, including Indigenous Allied Health Australia to set up the Leadership in Diabetes Care group.

Leadership in Diabetes Care is a new training course for health professionals, to be offered as a one-and-a-half-day face-to-face workshop with 4 hours of online training. The course provides a framework and guide for the health care professional to design a localised approach to improving type 2 diabetes programs in community. Participants will be assisted in identifying barriers and finding strategies for overcoming them. They will also look at the strengths of the community, including access to healthy foods and drinks, health care, culture, community support, and other programs. 

Outcomes for participants include: 

• Understanding how type 2 diabetes progresses across the lifespan.
• Understanding the impact of lifestyle and medications on management of type 2 diabetes.
• Ability to identify barriers within their community for improving type 2 diabetes related health outcomes.
• Ability to design strategies to eliminate or minimise barriers.
• Understanding how they can take a leadership role in the provision of type 2 diabetes related programs.

The Leadership in Diabetes Care is a consortium of partners including 

• Diabetes Australia
• The Diabetes Society 
• Australian Diabetes Educators Association
• Indigenous Allied Health Association (IAHA) 
• Australian Centre for Accelerating Diabetes Innovation (ACADI)
• National Association of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners (NAATSIWHP)
• The Heart Foundation

Each of the consortium partners provide modules according to their specialisations with IAHA contributing a critical module on Cultural Safety.

Ray is wanting to take his Leadership in Diabetes Care national wide and is seeking expressions of interest.

Check out  https://mailchi.mp/196036ff612d/leadership-in-diabetes-care