Programs for families and health care professionals
The following is a list of programs and resources that families and health care professionals may find helpful.
The Centre for Healthy Weights: Shapedown BC
The Centre for Healthy Weights: Shapedown BC is a comprehensive program for the assessment and treatment of childhood and adolescent obesity. Shapedown has been initiated at BC Children’s Hospital with the aim of facilitating similar programs province-wide. The Shapedown Program is family-focused and targets the underlying factors that often promote poor food choices and physical inactivity in families. The essential components of the program include:
- Standardized assessment that includes medical, psychological, and social components.
- Treatment comprised of a 10-week group program, one-on-one counselling, and support from secondary or tertiary care specialists according to established clinical standards and guidelines.
- Nutrition and counselling professionals who are certified Shapedown providers utilizing common education materials and resources.
Shapedown is part of the ActNow BC commitment to support all British Columbians in making the best choices for their health and well-being.
The center opened in September 2006 and has already served more than 200 families. Beside direct patient/family care, Shapedown is also assessing the presence of the complications of obesity in the children and adolescents who are referred to the program and is working in close collaboration with researchers at BC children's Hospital to develop primary care strategies for health care professionals in BC.
Kidsport BC
Established by Sport BC in 1993, KidSport™ is a community-based sport charity that provides grants for children aged 6 – 18 to participate in a sport season of their choice. There are 20 community chapters in BC and 160 across Canada.
The benefits of sport participation are well documented. Playing sport supports development of self-esteem, community engagement, confidence, leadership and teamwork skills. Through KidSport™ families dealing with financial hardship have one less thing to worry about, and can ensure their kids have an even playing field when it comes to accessibility to sport.
Food Skills for Families
Cooking healthy food that is tasty and appealing to our families is not always easy. Adding to the challenge is the fact that some families have limited incomes or do not even have basic information about where to start. Drawing on the strengths of two existing programs - Cooking Fun for Families and Cooking for Your Life! – the Canadian Diabetes Association is developing a new food skills program geared to the needs of vulnerable families. The program will build skills necessary for choosing and preparing healthy foods. New programming, promotion, venues and training for community-based facilitators ensure the program reaches those who need it most.
Healthy Start for Life
Healthy Start for Life has a meal planner and sample menus to help care providers ensure preschoolers eat well. Go to Healthy Start for Life - Eating Well Together Meal Planner
Eat Well Play Well
Eat Well, Play Well is intended to support parents, teachers and health intermediaries in their efforts to provide an environment that fosters healthy eating and active living in school age children and youth. There are many excellent resources on this website including creative and time-saving ideas for breakfast, school lunches, snacks and dinner.
My Food Guide
My Food Guide is an interactive tool that will help you personalize the information found in Canada's Food Guide.
By entering personal information, such as age and sex, selecting various items from the four food groups and choosing different types of physical activities, you can create a tool that is customized just for you.
There are lots of foods to choose from in each of the four food groups, so be sure to try different combinations when creating this tool that illustrates how you can eat well with Canada's Food Guide.
In addition to English or French you can choose to print this tool in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese (traditional or simplified), Farsi, Korean, Russian, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil or Urdu
Canada's Physical Activity Guide
A guide to help you make wise choices about physical activity. Choices that will improve your health, help prevent disease, and allow you to get the most out of life. Get active your way….build physical activity into your daily life….at home, school, work, play, on the way…that's active living!
Leap BC
LEAP BC™ provides children from birth to age five with a strong foundation in literacy, physical activity and healthy eating, through fun activities and play. This new program values the learning and bonding that happen when children and caregivers play together. Families can use the following resources to help with ideas around literacy, physical activity and healthy eating for children from birth to age five:
MOVE - Move with Me from Birth to Three Family Resource: For families with children from birth to three years of age. Resource with 40 fun-filled activities incorporating physical activity, early language and literacy, and healthy eating.
HOP - Healthy Opportunities for Preschoolers Family Resource: For families with children between 3-5 years of age.Resource with 40 fun-filled activities promoting physical activity, literacy and healthy eating through play
The Canadian Obesity Network
The mission of Canadian Obesity Network is to reduce the burden of obesity on Canadians by linking obesity researchers with health professionals, policy makers and other stakeholders to foster knowledge translation, capacity building and partnerships.
February 2010