Cape Breton clinic helps patients deal with causes of obesity

A new clinic in Glace Bay, NS, is helping people in Nova Scotia Health’s Eastern Zone manage obesity by using a different approach.

Employees use a multidisciplinary approach that revolves around the idea that obesity is a chronic disease. They teach patients about changing behaviors to manage obesity, about healthy eating habits, physical activity, building skills, and other treatments.

Doctor Tony Valente is a community physician specializing in obesity care. He says the way the medical community has approached obesity has changed in recent years.

“Traditionally, obesity has been viewed more as ‘you need to eat less and move more’,” he said, but there’s been a shift in that view.

Changes in the clinical view of obesity have been key to this, he says, because obesity is now widely viewed as a chronic disease similar to high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

The obesity clinic is unique to the province, says Valente, and enables the region to be a leader in finding new ways to treat the disease.

Dr. Faith Dodd is an orthopedic surgeon in Sydney who says the local obesity rate is quite high.

“The self-reported obesity rate in Cape Breton was about 42 percent, so that’s almost half of our population,” she said. “So if you look at the pool of people who would qualify for assistance, if they wanted to, that’s a large percentage of our population.”

The clinic includes a nurse practitioner, physical therapist, dietitian, and social worker, Dodd says.

Since opening in February, more than 300 patients have been referred to the clinic.

Valente says other parts of the country are taking note of the facility’s success.

“We’re really excited about crunching the numbers, seeing how our patients are doing and seeing where we can grow from there.”