You might have heard the term “Health Coach” thrown around in the last few years, but Firefly is taking health coaching to the next level with our Health Guides. The role of our health guides is to work closely on your care team alongside nurse practitioners, medical doctors, and behavioral health specialists to deliver holistic care. Health guides focus on helping you create healthy habits that stick and are trained to help patients with concerns like diet, exercise, sleep, and stress management.

Here are 10 ways that the health guide care model at Firefly can help support general health and well-being and create more positive health outcomes:

Managing complex care

Our world has shifted from treating infectious diseases to chronic diseases. Doctors are no longer treating illnesses like tuberculosis, rather, they’re treating diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Most of the time, chronic conditions can be prevented or improved with a change in lifestyle. That’s where health guides come in.

Integrating care from many providers

While health guides can be somewhat effective in their own practice, they have a much greater potential to impact lives in a larger system setting, such as primary care. Many cutting-edge healthcare providers are now including health guides on a patient’s team of providers because they are the glue that holds everything together including: clinicians, behavioral health specialists, referral teams, insurance, and other providers.

Promoting holistic health

Health guides don’t just want a weekly weigh in. They want to know if your kid won his soccer tournament, how your new puppy is doing, and if you survived the weekend with your in-laws. Health guides see you as a whole person, not just a patient ID.

Acting as a health advocate

Ever wish you had someone to help you navigate our complicated healthcare system? Well now you do. Health guides are trained to help you find the best care and answer specific questions regarding your health journey.
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Providing motivational interviewing

We’ve all had that New Years Resolution that fell flat on it’s face because we didn’t have enough motivation to follow through. Health guides specialize in motivational interviewing, a technique that draws a patient’s intrinsic motivators to highlight the reason for change in the first place.‍‍
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Focusing on goal setting

Along with motivational interviewing, goal setting is an effective tool to achieve outcomes. Health guides help patients set realistic and achievable goals, which eventually build on each other to become habits.

Offering accountability

Like your gym buddy, health guides are here to hold you accountable. When you have someone checking in on you at the end of each week it gives you motivation to work on the goal that you set with your health guide. Some of us need a little extra motivation and that’s okay!

Setting up sustainable life changes

The purpose of meeting with a health guide is not to lose twenty pounds for a wedding just to gain it back in several months. These visits are meant to set you up for success for the rest of your life by helping you implement sustainable changes that will improve your health for the long run.

Encouraging ownership of one's health

Health guides don’t come into a visit with a strict agenda. They want to hear what you want to work on and how you want to do it. This empowers the patient to take ownership of their health, rather than waiting for their annual visit to bring up concerns.
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Saving you (and your insurance) money

Health coaching is becoming a popular item on the benefits list, with many insurance companies and employers covering the costs of seeing one. Because of the potential in cost reduction, health guides are catching the eyes of key players that are investing in their services.

Your Firefly care team is here to help

Here at Firefly, we believe you are more than a patient ID number. We know you have a life outside of your annual visit, which is why we offer continuous, coordinated care on your terms and schedule. Our physician-led team really knows you and sees you as a whole person.

Interested in seeing the Firefly difference? Get started by signing up below, take our quiz, or call us at (855) 869-9284 to see if our continuous, coordinated care model is right for you.
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