Welcome message
The last couple of months at CO-OPS have been busy with ongoing and increasing interest in community-based obesity prevention locally and internationally, and planning for the 2010 CO-OPS National Workshop in full swing.
In June, the Korean Government asked CO-OPS to present at their International Symposium on Childhood Obesity Prevention. This was a great opportunity to present CO-OPS to an international audience. Also in June, CO-OPS presented on 'How to get healthy policy change at local government level' at a two day workshop hosted by the Australian Government Department of Health & Ageing
for 12 Healthy Communities projects. In July, members of the CO-OPS Collaboration attended the International Conference on Obesity
in Stockholm, the world's largest gathering of leading obesity researchers. See below for a report on this conference.
Once again in this newsletter, we have great case studies to share with you, this time with a focus on rural best practice. The October newsletter will focus on urban issues, please send case studies and contributions by 4th October. This newsletter which goes out to over 750 people across Australia and internationally.
Thank you for continuing to support CO-OPS, we look forward to seeing you at the National Workshop in Sydney.
Regards
Steve Allender
Director CO-OPS
back to top 2010 National Workshop 20 & 21 October - Register now!
The 2010 CO-OPS National Workshop
will be a major national event bringing together practitioners, researchers and funding bodies working in community-based obesity prevention to learn from each other, promote best practice and develop professional networks. Run over two days at the Hilton in Sydney, the workshop is free to attend.
Places are filling fast, with 94 of the 126 places booked as at 9th August. Register now to book your spot before it's too late. Registration is free, registrations are taken on a first come first served basis and numbers are limited. Abstract
submissions close 20th August. For more information contact Emma on 03 5227 8929 or email admin@co-ops.net.au
back to top International Congress on Obesity
www.ico2010.org
The 2010 International Congress on Obesity was held in Stockholm in July.
Members of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention presented 30 papers and CO-OPS had 9 papers including four which presented the Evidence Summaries and Best Practice Principles at the congress, which is the largest gathering of practitioners & academics working in obesity in the world.
- Steve presented a poster titled ‘Methodology to establish a network of community-based obesity prevention initiatives in Australia’ that described the establishment of CO-OPS
- Melanie gave an oral presentation titled ‘Decreasing prevalence of overweight and obesity among an Australian population of preschool children’.
- Rebecca presented a poster titled ‘The status of community-based obesity prevention in Australia’ (describing preliminary results from our nationwide survey of community-based obesity prevention projects. More details will appear in our next e-newsletter)
- Notable plenary presentations were given by Sir Michael Marmot (who outlined the social determinants of obesity, highlighting the importance of equity in obesity causation and prevention); Professor Garry Egger (who discussed the environmental and economic causes and consequences of the obesity epidemic, as detailed in a book co-authored by Boyd Swinburn); and Dr Derek Yach from PepsiCo about the role of large corporations in tackling the obesity epidemic. Read more about the conference here.
back to top New resource on the CO-OPS website - qualitative research
Are you conducting or planning qualitative research or data collection in your project?
Qualitative data can make a significant contribution to program evaluation, yet can be daunting to plan and conduct. 'The Qualitative Research Guidelines Project: A Comprehensive Guide for Designing, Writing, Reviewing and Reporting Qualitative Research' is a new online resource that will be useful for anyone developing, evaluating and engaging in qualitative research projects in health. It provides a wide range of useful guides, tools and links for practitioners and researchers. Read more about the resource here: Qualitative Research.
We are constantly adding resources to the CO-OPS resource library to help support you in community-based obesity prevention. Browse or search the library here. If you have or know of any resources that would be valuable for us to add to the library, please contact us.
back to top Want to know how to get your Local Government on board?
If you work in or with Local Government and are looking for tools to assist a Council or Councils create local environments that support active, healthy communities and lifestyles, then the Queensland Government
resource package for Local Government can help you. This useful the resource package:
• covers a broad range of council functions
• suits councils of different sizes and levels of remoteness
• can be easily incorporated in stages into the policies and practices of councils
• contains options that can be undertaken with limited resources (i.e. little or no budget or additional staff allocation)
• contains options that provide good return on investment in the short and long term
Click to access the full publication
back to top Obesity Prevention Short Course
The WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University and the CO-OPS Collaboration
jointly hosted the 2010 Obesity Prevention 5-day Course in Geelong between June 28th and July 2nd. Participants from all around Australia and from a range of sectors and professions participated in a packed 5 day program of lectures, workshops and networking which included the current state of the art in obesity prevention research and practice. The course included showcases of 6 local community-based obesity prevention projects and presentations from 14 leading researchers in obesity prevention. Topics included epidemiology and determinants, socio-cultural considerations, capacity building, priority setting, social marketing, evaluation and disseminationin obesity prevention.
If you would like to register your interest in advance for next year's course, please email Emma at admin@co-ops.net.au
back to top Rural case studies
This edition of the CO-OPS newsletter presents two rural case studies, and you can’t get much more rural or quintessentially Australian than the Royal Flying Doctor Services.
We feature an article written by Jenny Bourne on their Healthy Living Program which is funded by the Li Ka Shing Foundation. This case study demonstrates how in a rural setting a Program can collect data on participants, work in community & individual settings, deliver health education messages, provide coaching, deliver training, and work both face-to-face, via phone and internet. Click for more
The second case study comes from the Southern Wheatbelt in Western Australia which is a good few hours east of Perth where there is a wonderfully active network of Health Professionals. The case study focuses on the Narrogin Aboriginal Men’s Health Program (Narrogin Noongar Maaman) which began in February 2009 and is a multi-strategy approach to social and emotional wellbeing issues within the Aboriginal community in Narrogin, Western Australia. Click for more
back to top Professional Development
CO-OPS delivers professional development sessions in every State and Territory each year in the form of:
• Face-to-face training workshops (such as the upcoming sessions in Sale and Moe) that focus on upskilling health professionals, local government staff and policy makers in areas such as evaluation and community engagement
• Online audio interviews with obesity prevention experts
• Online training courses from external organisations, i.e. World Health Organization
Upcoming professional development in Victoria:
• Sale, 5th October - evaluating early childhood, preschool and primary school nutrition and physical activity programs
• Moe, 6th October -engaging communities
Click to access presentations from previous workshops
Could your network benefit from a session delivered by CO-OPS? (yes it's free) If so email Emma
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