Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Malaysia - Toolkit for a healthier life


Are there sensitive ways for healthcare professionals to tell patients too obese for their own good to lead a healthier lifestyle?

Yes, there are, and tips on how to do this are contained in a toolkit launched on Saturday by the Health Promotion Board (HPB).

To be sent out to about 10,000 doctors, nurses and allied health workers in the coming year, this first-of-its-kind initiative for public and private healthcare practitioners covers smoking, stress and unsafe sexual practices, aside from obesity.

The first batch of 5,500 kits will be sent out today.

The HPB will also run courses in the next three months to train healthcare workers on how to counsel and interview patients in a way that will motivate them to make changes.

The kit is designed to be used by general practitioners as well as nurses, therapists, pharmacists, traditional Chinese medicine physicians, optometrists and dentists, and the HPB hopes that a concerted effort from these medical workers will have a “multiplier effect” on patients, helping them quit their bad habits.

HPB’s chief executive Ang Hak Seng said doing so would keep chronic ailments in check and also lower the country’s obesity rate.

The Straits Times/ Asia News Network

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