Combined Lifestyle Intervention (GLI)
The cabinet recently decided to include lifestyle coaching in the basic insurance from January 2019. The GP can refer adults with a health risk due to overweight to a lifestyle coach or to health care providers who jointly offer lifestyle coaching.
In total, no fewer than 5 million Dutch people are eligible for lifestyle coaching. They are either overweight (a BMI over 30), or they are overweight (BMI over 25) and have another health risk, such as high blood pressure, a large waistline or elevated cholesterol. What kind of treatment can you expect if you are referred by the GP?
Full package
Lifestyle coaching leads to changes in nutrition, exercise, sleep, smoking cessation and relaxation. The name ‘coaching’ is not for nothing: you are going to change your lifestyle yourself, and the coach helps you to do that in a way that suits you exactly. There must be nothing. It is about finding the possibilities and the motivation to lead a better life. The lifestyle coach focuses on what you need to make healthy choices in daily life; choices that suit you and are therefore sustainable.
Combined Lifestyle Intervention (GLI)
With a chic term, lifestyle coaching is also called Combined Lifestyle Intervention (GLI). Such a GLI consists of a fixed structure, with a well-thought-out program. Three of these lifestyle interventions are recognized by the RIVM: SLIMMER, CooL and the Beweegkuur. All three consist partly of individual supervision and partly of a group program. Only recognized lifestyle interventions are eligible for reimbursement under the basic insurance. It is now up to health insurers to decide which of these programs they will reimburse and contract.
For two years
Changing your habits takes a long time. That is why all recognized GLIs last for two years. If your GP refers you, you can go to a lifestyle coach, or to a partnership between physiotherapists and dietitians that offer a recognized GLI. At the moment, lifestyle coach is not yet a protected title. Lifestyle coaches who have at least a higher professional education diploma and who have completed an accredited (post) higher professional education course to become a lifestyle coach can join the Professional Association of Lifestyle Coaches in the Netherlands (BLCN). The Combined Lifestyle Intervention has so far only been intended for adults. Experiments are currently taking place to determine how overweight children can best be helped.
Criticism and questions
The inclusion of lifestyle coaching will start at the beginning of next year, but there are still quite a few questions. Is the lifestyle intervention at the expense of the deductible or not? Which recognized GLIs are reimbursed by which health insurers? Which GLIs are offered in your region? And is there money and space at all to meet the high demand? So there is still a lot of uncertainty, but one thing is certain. Everyone agrees that a healthy lifestyle is very important for the prevention and treatment of obesity and many chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In that respect, lifestyle coaching is really an excellent idea.