Download Balancing the scales: Promoting healthy weight management

Balancing the scales: Promoting healthy weight management without blame or
shame
Team: SFL, Lyons R, Aston M, Price S, Rehman L, Vallis TM, Curran J.
Funded by: Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation
This project explored multiple perspectives of weight management in the Nova
Scotia health care system. We talked with individuals seeking support for weight
management, health care professionals and policy-makers. We observed how the
management of weight within our health care system is rife with weight bias, stigma
and blame. These issues hindered the relationship between health care providers
and the individuals they worked with. They also prevented weight issues from being
managed in a way that was supportive and sensitive to weight bias. The rich
narratives from our participants have subsequently been developed into a dramatic
presentation. This drama depicts the relationship between a health professional and
an individual seeking support for weight management. The setting is the office of a
family doctor. Internal dialogue (directed at the audience) and external dialogue
(directed at each other) highlight the spoken and unspoken tensions around weight
management that were so powerfully described by our participants. Our findings
clearly highlight some of the barriers in weight management within a system that is
not designed to support individuals around weight management. These findings are
being used to stimulate debate about how weight issues are managed. They have
also been developed into an interprofessional education tool with a variety of health
professional students as a way to support a more open, non-judgmental and
collaborative dialogue around weight.