Available for free to young people aged 8 to 14 years with a BMI > 95th percentile for age. To check BMI, you can ask your GP practice or public health nurse to support you with this or calculate it using the Healthy weight BMI calculator | Ministry of Health NZ. The young person and their whānau must be motivated to make lifestyle changes.
If you choose to join this Programme, you will be involved in the following:
Initial Assessment
We start with an individual appointment with the paediatrician/nurse, the dietitian and the clinical psychologist (approximately half an hour with each). We will talk to you and your child, take measurements and do a general assessment.
We may also ask you to take your child for an early morning fasting (before you eat breakfast) blood test on another day.
Group Sessions
You will then join some children of a similar age and their families (generally 8-10 children and their families) for a series of eight weekly group education sessions to provide education and help you begin to make some changes. We make these sessions FUN and interesting!
We cover topics including goal setting, physical activity, food groups/good nutrition, the pressures of food, screen time, and barriers to achieving change.
It is essential that you attend all of these sessions (Monday afternoons, from 3.45pm-5pm).
Follow Up
After the group sessions, we will support your whānau to keep on track by staying in touch for a year to help you all reach your goals and maintain the changes made to support you to continue to make healthy changes.
For this Programme to work, your whānau must work together to make some changes. So please discuss as a whānau whether you would like to be part of this Programme and get back to us as soon as possible.