Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

By overwhelming consensus, obesity is now recognized as a chronic disease within the medical and public health communities. However, obesity continues to be misunderstood, trivialized, and stigmatized as a simple "lifestyle" issue that can be effectively addressed by the mantra of "eat-less-move-more". To address obesity more effectively, we must shift the dialogue from blame and shame to evidence-based solutions as we do with other serious chronic diseases. This shift in dialogue needs to involve researchers, health professionals, policy makers, and individuals living with obesity. The objective of this workshop is to bring together researchers, health care professionals, policy makers, and individuals living with obesity to share the latest obesity evidence and to discuss the implications for policy and practice. This workshop will be held in conjunction with the 6th Canadian Obesity Summit in Ottawa, Ontario on April 23, 2019 hosted by Obesity Canada. The workshop agenda will be developed in collaboration with a sub-group of workshop participants through planning teleconferences. Evaluation: Workshop outcomes will be measured via a post-workshop survey that will measure: a) understanding of obesity as a chronic disease; b) understanding of chronic disease management strategies and obesity management approaches in Canada; and c) awareness of the lived experiences of persons with obesity. Expected deliverable: a plan of action whereby policy makers, researchers, and patients living with obesity can work together to change the obesity narrative and begin to close the current healthcare access gap.