2nd Dietitian Obesity Learning Retreat



Prof. Andrea Bucholz, RD, University of Guelph

Prof. Andrea Bucholz, RD, University of Guelph

Yesterday was the start of the 2nd Learning Retreat on the Principles and Practice of Interdisciplinary Obesity Management for Dietitians, an event co-hosted by the Canadian Obesity Network and the Dietitians of Canada.

This event follows a 1st Dietitian Learning Retreat that was held in Winnipeg last year.

As readers will appreciate, dietitians have a key role to play in both obesity prevention and management. However, given the complexity of obesity, all practitioners called upon to deal with this issue require knowledge and skills that go well beyond the “traditional’ knowledge of their respective disciplines.

Thus, these retreats, which are offered exclusively to registered dietitians from across Canada, provide a unique learning activity to enhance the skills of dietitians working in the field of adult obesity in areas such as psychiatry, psychology, kinesiology, surgery, exercise physiology, occupational therapy, human metabolism, and post-bariatric surgical nutrition care.

Based on the lively discussion and enthusiastic response of the participants to yesterday’s opening lectures, which focussed on the patient experience, assessment of body composition (Andrea Bucholz, RD, Guelph), and the issue of weight bias and discrimination (Michael Vallis, Clin Psychologist, Halifax), I can only expect that this four-day event will be as successful as last year’s retreat.

I certainly look forward to learning more about these topics both from the faculty as well as from the many discussions with attendees.

AMS
Guelph, Ontario