Stop bullying the overweight, says public health expert

 The NHS should tackle obesity with support, not threats, the conference heard.

‘The major issue from parents of obese children is their kids are being bullied. What do we do as the NHS? We bully them and threaten to take their kids into care,’ said Professor Chris Drinkwater, president of the NHS Alliance, a body that represents health professionals in primary care.

‘People know being overweight is not good for them, but we don’t have real mechanisms in place to help them,’ he warned.

Yet a series of small, local projects focused on having fun, involving all the family had shown real results. ‘Support from next door, not on high’ such as employing local people as health trainers, offering advice and encouragement, could make a real difference, he said.

Professor Drinkwater, a public health specialist, is director of HealthWORKS Newcastle. Schemes it runs showing people how to shop for healthy food, cook and get active give them power over their lives, and have far better results than merely lecturing them, he explained.

In Newcastle, one in three children in the last year of primary school is overweight or obese. Levels are higher in deprived areas.

The ‘Lean East’ scheme, working with ten primary schools, had cut obesity by 2.1%, compared to a 4.1% increase in other local schools in 2006/07, Professor Drinkwater said. While these are merely short-term results, ‘it is a trend in the right direction and if it continues we will be narrowing the gap’.

The scheme was based on a partnership between the council, primary care trust, education authority, local football club and voluntary sector. It encouraged the whole family, including grandparents, to get active.

Challenging the behaviour of frontline NHS and education staff was a key element, he explained. ‘We are more engaging and supportive, not seen as a big bully.’

Focus groups among people with Type 2 diabetes – strongly associated with obesity – in Middlesborough had found people felt ‘bombarded with health messages’ and felt dismissed and fatalistic.

The groups called for a project taking a fresh approach, offering free or low cost healthy cooking sessions with sympathetic, understanding staff.

‘These are the sorts of messages we constantly come across,’ said Professor Drinkwater. The NHS should take note, and encourage people to get together and have fun, not lecture them, he added.