Weight
loss can be difficult at the best of times. Temptation and easy options lurk
round every corner and keeping up an active lifestyle can be difficult when
attempting to juggle the many demands of day-to-day life.
In the battle against obesity, Over half of Welsh adults are currently ranked as overweight or obese.
Gastric bands, pills and
restricted diets may provide a solution to the weight issue but the causes of
over eating are often rooted in more than just diet. Many factors contribute to
people’s behavioral patterns and eating habits are no different. Social,
material, economic and environmental
factors all have a bearing on people’s ability to maintain a healthy weight
and lifestyle.
The
Garw valley in Bridgend, Wales is one area where service providers have really
adopted the whole person approach to weight management. Their Weight Management
Programme arose from one local GP’s frustration at the lack of local options to
support obese patients and their desire to offer patients access to the
established ‘slimming on referral’ schemes offered by the commercial weight
management organisations.
From
this the Weight Management Programme was born. The programme aimed to work to
integrate health and leisure services as a non-clinical intervention for weight
management. The programme involved shaping behaviour through group activities that
maintained peer support, motivation and other social aspects. The programme involved referral and support
from primary care, the Weight Watchers scheme, the exercise
referral scheme and signposting to community activities to aid sustainable
health promoting behavior change.
Dafydd
Thomas, Executive Director at Lles Cymru Wellbeing
Wales was
commissioned to pilot a wellbeing assessment process to explore the range of
factors affecting the participants, their wellbeing and in turn their ability
or motivation to manage their weight.
The assessment explored the Weight Management Programme participant’s own subjective assessments of their wellbeing, grounded in the specific context of their community and experience using indicators that they themselves developed.
To
read the report summery then please click here. We'd love to hear your
thoughts on it so why not drop us an e-mail at admin@wellbeingwales.org
Wellbeing Wales
Wellbeing Wales
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