Cape Breton clinic helping patients deal with causes of obesity
Matthew Moore | CBC News | Posted: June 28, 2023 9:32 PM | Last Updated: June 28, 2023
Facility in Glace Bay approaches obesity as a chronic disease
A new clinic in Glace Bay, N.S., is helping help people in Nova Scotia Health's eastern zone manage obesity by using a different tack.
Staff are using a multi-disciplinary approach that hinges on the idea that obesity is a chronic disease. They are teaching patients about changing behaviours to manage obesity, about healthy eating habits, physical activity, skills-building and other treatments.
Doctor Tony Valente is a family physician in the community who specializes in obesity care. He says the way the medical community has approached obesity has changed in recent years.
"Traditionally, obesity was looked at more as that, 'you need to eat less and move more,'" he said, but there is a shift away from that view.
Changes in the clinical view of obesity has been key to this, he says, because obesity is now widely considered a chronic disease similar to high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
The obesity clinic is unique to the province, Valente says, and is allowing the region to be a leader in finding new ways to treat the disease.
Dr. Faith Dodd is an orthopedic surgeon in Sydney who says the local rate of obesity is quite high.
"The self-reported rate of obesity in Cape Breton was approximately 42 per cent. So that's approaching half of our population," she said. "So if you looked at the pool of people who would be eligible to have help, if they wished to, that's going to be a large percentage of our population."
The clinic includes a nurse practitioner, physiotherapist, dietitian and social worker, Dodd says.
Since it opened in February, more than 300 patients have been referred to the clinic.
Valente says other areas of the country are taking note of the facility's success.
"We're really excited about crunching the numbers, seeing how our patients are doing, and see where we can grow from there."
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