There are several different sources of help that an individual can get when they’re wanting help to lose weight.  The most common one that they might approach first is the non-interpersonal sources such as diet books, watching diet programmes on television and the internet. These have some good points and some bad points. The good points are that people can access them when they want but the bad point is that there’s no-one governing whether it’s reliable information or whether it’s fad diets.

One of the other sources of help that an individual might go to when wanting to lose weight is the commercial sector. Now this can include slimming organizations like Slimming World, Weight Watchers and Rosemary Connolly. All of these have definite plus points and benefits to the individual. They’ve got the group mentality and motivation so they can go along with their friends which instantly gives a bit of extra support in their weight loss regime. Plus because they’re actually paying, they’re wanting something back in return so it helps to motivate them and encourages them to actually try a little bit harder.

Support from your healthcare professionals

Obviously healthcare professionals would encourage an individual to come to the NHS and the primary care setting for help with their weight loss. There’s a lot of pressure on primary care trusts and individual GP practices to provide some form of weight management services. Most primary care trusts now have obesity strategies that actually have care pathways in place from the moment that somebody presents with a weight problem all the way up to their final treatment even in extreme cases such as bariatric surgery.

Some of these may be based in the GP practice and it may be just with the individual GP, specialist nurse, healthcare assistant or dietitian. The patient may be referred to a specialist center where they can get specialist input from a multidisciplinary team that might involve clinical psychologists, dietitians, specialist nurses, GPs with a specialist interest in obesity or bariatric surgeons.

Date posted: 27/01/2009