Strong commitment to new target focused on healthy kids

MEDIA RELEASE

November 22, 2016

Strong commitment to new target focused on healthy kids

The Canterbury Health System is committed to the Government’s newest health target ‘Raising Healthy Kids’, which has come into effect from Quarter 1 2016/2017.

The new target focuses on identifying and offering children with obesity a referral for a clinical assessment and healthy lifestyle intervention at the Before School Checks (B4SC).

David Meates, Canterbury DHB Chief Executive says earlier this year the five South Island district health boards (DHBs) agreed on a regional approach to address childhood obesity and plan how they would meet the new Ministry of Health target.

“A suite of referral options are now being made available to General Practice teams to refer at-risk children and their families, ensuring equal access to high quality resources for all South Island residents.”

Mr Meates says an integrated approach is the most effective pathway to prevent and manage overweight children in the South Island.

“Amongst these, for selected cases, will be ‘Triple P Lifestyle’, a cost-effective, evidence-based parenting course that focuses on behavioural change, nutrition and physical activity advice for the whole family, as well as ‘Active Families’, via Sport Canterbury, which offers coaching and support to families to be more active.

“A popular resource that has been used across the health sector in Waikato since mid-2015 will also be available in the South Island. BeSmarter, which was developed as a parent/child friendly way to start conversations about health and goal-setting, is currently used by paediatricians, nurses, dieticians, dentists, GPs, practice nurses and B4SC staff.”

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