Lifestyle Medicine Training

Offered externally (online) and available anywhere in the world.  Commencing Feb 2022!

Lifestyle medicine is the evidence-based application of nutrition, fasting, movement, sleep, mind states and mindsets (e.g., meditation, breath work, stress management, creative arts), reduced substance use, social connectedness, connection with the natural world and social determinants, combined with enhanced behaviour change techniques and health coaching, new models of care and technology in the management of lifestyle-relate health problem in a variety of settings.

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“Lifestyle interventions can prevent ~80% of chronic disease and be a crucial part of treatment for mental and physical illness to help support whole-of-person wellbeing (1, 2, 3, 4).”

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Learn

• To assess, prevent and treat mental and physical illness using lifestyle interventions
• Behavioural science and health coaching
• To implement innovative models of care and new business models in a variety of settings, including multidisciplinary care, shared medical appointments, lived experience peer-to-peer models, digital and online platforms, proactive community and industry solutions
• Media and communication in health
• Research methodology for health professionals

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“Lifestyle medicine is the perfect partner to clinical practice, research and public health.”

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• Highly practical, experiential and evidence based
• The only postgraduate training in the world under a College of Medicine
• Designed for ALL health professionals, including doctors, dietitians, physiotherapists, exercise physiologists, nurses, psychologists, pharmacists, podiatrists and more
• Be connected to world class teaching and high profile clinicians, researchers, industry experts, people with lived experience and innovators in the field of lifestyle medicine
• Personalise your training with subjects from the Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Public Health (MPH)

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“This training is an incubator for lifestyle medicine careers, projects and innovation in healthcare.  These courses are fundamentally about learning to become leaders in healthcare, because to deliver lifestyle medicine we need our healthcare systems and structures to upgrade, it is that simple. We cannot deliver proper physical and mental chronic disease prevention and treatment in the current model, no matter how good our doctors, nurses and allied health are, the models are out of date and it is both the therapists and the public who suffer as a result. So these programs have been constructed by experts from multiple health, business and social disciplines to mentor those on the path to healthcare transformation; the change makers of health.” 

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Career opportunities

These courses are ideal for health professionals who wish to explore a career in the growing area of lifestyle medicine, including:

• Clinical practice
• New business development
• Research and teaching
• Health sector, business, NGO and government consulting
• Community development and projects
• Media and communication in health

Course options

Coursework was designed for busy health professionals to make it both sustainable and achievable.

• Graduate Certificate in Lifestyle Medicine (FT 6 months; PT 12 months)
• Graduate Diploma in Lifestyle Medicine (PT 24 months)
• Master of Lifestyle Medicine (PT 36 months)

Commonwealth Supported Placed (CSP) and HECS-HELP funding is available for Australian residents.

Recognition of Prior Learning

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) opportunities exist for students who have a fellowship in a medical college and/or completion of other lifestyle medicine certification and/or completion of a relevant area of study.

Maximum credit points granted:

• Master: 12
• Grad Dip: 6
• Grad cert: 3

All students who complete a Masters in Lifestyle Medicine are automatically eligible* for a Fellowship of the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine (FASLM) in addition to their MLifestyleMed credentials.

References

1. Ford ES, Bergmann MM, Kröger J, Schienkiewitz A, Weikert C, Boeing H. Healthy living is the best revenge: Findings from the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Potsdam study. Arch Intern Med 2009
2. Lean ME, Leslie WS, Barnes AC, et al. Primary care-led weight management for remission of type 2 diabetes (DiRECT): An open label, cluster-randomised trial. Lancet 2018
3. Ornish D, Scherwitz L, Billings JH, et al. Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart disease. JAMA 1998
4. Firth J, Marx, W, Dash S, et al. The effects of dietary improvements on symptoms of depression and anxiety: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Psychosom Med 2019

*A Masters degree in Lifestyle Medicine is recognised by ASLM as a pathway to Fellowship of the society.  Once accredited by ASLM, the Master of Lifestyle Medicine at JCU is expected to be eligible for fellowship points at the rate of 120 points per unit, which for 12 units, equates to 1440 points of the 1440 points required for Fellowship.  However this depends on unit selection given that some elective units in the degree may not be specific to Lifestyle Medicine.  There are also various requirements under the ASLM Fellowship Framework that must also be met, such as a maximum number of Fellowship points that can be earned per domain of Lifestyle Medicine and a breadth of domains in which competency must be demonstrated, but in most cases, graduates of a Masters degree in Lifestyle Medicine with a bachelor degree qualification in a relevant health discipline, will have sufficient points to be awarded the ASLM Fellowship.  More information at https://www.lifestylemedicine.org.au/fellowship/.