Obesity is one of the major healthcare conditions, needing a lot of support from everyone.
Obesity is increasingly getting recognised as a ‘Chronic, recurrent metabolic disease’, affecting a person's physical, mental, social, and financial wellbeing.
People with Obesity, usually have multiple other physical problems like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnoea, lipid abnormalities, osteoarthritis, mental health problems, mobility related problems and increased incidence of cancer.
There is increasing evidence that, when people get help to lose weight, many of these conditions improve, and their quality of life improves.
However, there is a stigma attached to people with weight related problems, who are made to feel that it is their own fault, and this stigma limits them asking for help.
There needs to be a balance created between the concerns associated with medicalising this condition fully and recognising obesity as a disease.
A paradigm shift is absolutely needed in the way the healthcare professionals and the common people approach obesity, in removing this stigma, and a whole system approach should be developed to prevent obesity and treat obesity related problems.
Our Integrated Care System has created a separate workstream to make a journey towards achieving this whole system approach and develop appropriate pathways at all tiers of care for patients with weight related problems.
We invite everyone to join the journey of championing for getting the appropriate help to people with weight related problems.