Paso del Norte region health professionals who have received special training in obesity and weight management.
Over two-thirds of the people in our region struggle with overweight or obesity daily. The latest science shows that obesity is a complex disease that requires customized medical treatment and other specialized strategies. Unfortunately, only a handful of healthcare providers and allied health professionals – nationwide – know how to apply their field of knowledge to people with obesity. But that is now changing in.
Through the efforts of the Paso del Norte Institute for Healthy Living at The University of Texas at El Paso (IHL), with funding from the Healthy Eating Active Living initiative of the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, two new training programs aim to radically change the resources available to support obesity management and weight loss in this region.
For the first program, the IHL partnered with the obesity education company, MetaboLogix, to develop the “Practical Obesity Management Course.” A group of healthcare providers attended the course and received intensive instruction from a group of internationally renowned obesity experts. Following the intensive 2-day instruction, the participants have one year of follow-up webinars and conference calls to support implementation of the course content into their daily practices.
The second program is a series of workshops to train allied health and fitness professionals on evidence-based approaches for the management of obesity and its comorbidities. Participants gain basic knowledge of adaptations to traditional exercise programming for adults with obesity, and how to safely begin an exercise program. The workshops emphasize practical, tailored, everyday approaches to help patients/clients safely and effectively engage in exercise prescriptions in clinical, home-based, and community settings.
Following completion of these training programs, providers will be invited to be listed here on this website with their professional contact information so that community members can identify health professionals in the region who can help them with their efforts to achieve a healthier body weight.
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