HSE CHILDHOOD OBESITY services are “sparse or non-existent” across the majority of the country, it was revealed today.
The Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute (INDI) is now calling on Government to urgently devise a childhood obesity strategy and
implementation plan.
The call came as it launched the inaugural Nourish Children Week, a public awareness campaign that seeks to raise awareness and understanding of issues relating to childhood nutrition including childhood obesity, weaning and spoon feeding and nutritional support for children with disabilities.
At the launch of Nourish Children Week today, the organisation said that parents have little or no services to turn to in their community if their children are overweight or obese.
Obesity prevention
There are just three HSE childhood obesity prevention programmes across seven counties, and just two group treatment programmes exist, covering three counties.
Approximately 1 in 4 (30,000) primary school children in Ireland today are either overweight or obese, said INDI.
It completed a mapping exercise of childhood obesity services across the country, which showed that there are only three childhood obesity prevention programmes:
Additionally, the two group intervention programmes for obese children operating across three counties are:
INDI said that Temple Street Children’s University Hospital is the only children’s hospital with an intervention programme (called W82GO) for obese children with co-morbidities, but it currently has a nine month waiting list.
There are no dedicated clinics for obese children at Our Lady’s Hospital Crumlin but limited access through endocrinology and other specialities. Obese children are seen by a dietitian in the National Children’s Hospital Tallaght but the waiting list is over a year.
Tackling child obesity
Richelle Flanagan, Dietitian and President, INDI said:
[D]espite the Departments of Health and Children constantly highlighting the ever increasing rise of childhood obesity, they have not grasped the nettle and devised a national strategy and implementation plan to tackle it.
In partnership with Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, the INDI has presented a Vision for Childhood Obesity Policy and Services.
It asks the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in partnership with Department of Health and other government departments to develop a national cross-sectoral strategy for childhood obesity prevention and intervention service.
It also wants the HSE to agree the best model for community based childhood obesity prevention and intervention programmes with reference to existing evidence-based best practice programmes.
It also suggests:
Dr Sinead Murphy, consultant paediatrician at Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, said: “The Irish Government has no choice but to work to prevent and treat this ‘disease’ and tackle the ‘toxic environment’ that simultaneously restricts activity and stimulates higher calorie intake.”
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