Advocacy

Advocacy

Advocacy

Strategic Goal #1: Increase access to weight management services.

  • Children’s Mercy’s Weight Management Clinic volume increased by 18% in 2021 compared to 2020. Both clinic and group programs continued to be offered by telehealth.
  • CHLN members Drs. Jordan Carlson, Meredith Dreyer Gillette and Sarah Hampl continued preparation for the pilot of family-based behavioral treatment in Children’s Mercy’s and Freeman Health System’s primary care clinics through the CDC-funded Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (CORD) grant. This pilot should begin in early 2022 and will increase access to obesity treatment directly within these patient-centered medical homes.
  • On a statewide level, Missouri HealthNet activated its pediatric and adult obesity treatment benefit for individuals insured by fee-for-service Medicaid. The extension of this benefit to individuals insured by Missouri Medicaid managed care organizations is expected in 2022. A summary of the progress of this and other recommendations made by the 2014-15 MO
  • A 45-page summary of the progress of this and other recommendations made by the 2014-15 MO Childhood Obesity Subcommittee was compiled by Ms. Deborah Markenson, former director of Weighing In, in 2021 and is available online with this link:  https://extension.missouri.edu/media/wysiwyg/Extensiondata/Pro/MOCAN/Docs/HWAC-ChangeLandscapeReport.pdf

Strategic Goal #2: Increase the effectiveness of health care professionals’ delivery

of weight management services professionals’ delivery of weight management services.

  • CHLN clinical faculty and staff gave local, statewide and national talks during 2021. Audiences included family medicine and pediatric residents, physician assistants and medical students and practicing registered dietitians and pediatric primary care providers.
  • Institutionally, Drs. Brooke Sweeney, Amy Beck and Hampl advised the Severe Pediatric Obesity Taskforce.
  • Drs. Dreyer-Gillette, Hampl and Cristina Fernandez serve as hub team members for the University of Missouri Telehealth Network’s pediatric weight management ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), which launched in August, and has had steadily increasing attendance.
  • Dr. Beck is a hub team member for the Network’s eating disorder ECHO, which will launch in 2022.
  • Nationally, the pediatric obesity performance improvement module developed for the American Board of Pediatrics by Drs. Fernandez and Sweeney went live in October 2021 and had over 40 participants in its first two months.
  • Drs. Fernandez and Hampl served as faculty for the National Association of Community Health Centers’
  • Let’s Get Started childhood obesity quality improvement collaborative.
  • Dr. Amy Beck spoke on weight bias in pediatric health care settings to health care professionals at Nemours/ AI duPont Hospital for Children. She also co-authored an article regarding structural racism and childhood obesity published in Childhood Obesity. 
  • Dr. Sarah Hampl continued in her multi-year role as chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ obesity clinical practice guideline writing committee and presented about childhood obesity and the Missouri Medicaid obesity treatment benefit at two state primary care provider conferences.

Strategic Goal #3: Increasing awareness of public/community agencies regarding weight management

  • At the institutional level, Center employee wellbeing committee members Dr. Hampl and Ms. Shelly Summar advocated for continuation of an institutional restriction on sale of sugar-sweetened beverages and are assisting in preservation of previous healthy food environment gains as a new cafeteria opens in 2022.
  • Dr. Helena LaRoche participated in the Hunger-Free Hospital Council.
  • Dr. Kimberly Randell was a member of the Intimate Partner Violence Work Group and the Faculty-Trainee Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and co-chaired this Committee’s gender equity subcommittee.
  • Locally, Dr. Jordan Carlson spoke on the topic of supporting students to be physically active for improved health and learning.
  • Dr. Delwyn Catley was a coinvestigator for the Our Healthy Eastside Kansas City grant. Dr. Lisa Mische-Lawson partnered with the city of Merriam, Kansas, to expand sensory-enhanced aquatics at the Merriam Community Center.
  • At the state level, Ms. Summar, Drs. Dreyer Gillette and Hampl continued participation in the Missouri Council for Activity and Nutrition (MOCAN). Dr. Hampl was the co-chair of the MOCAN health care workgroup. Drs. Dreyer Gillette and Hampl also participated in MOCAN’s Healthy Weight Advisory Committee.
  • Dr. Beck was an invited member of the Missouri Psychological Association (MOPA)’s continuing education planning committee and integrated health and diversity workgroups. She represented CHLN, in coordination with the Missouri Hospital Association and MOPA, to testify on the pediatric mental health crisis to the Missouri House of Representatives Subcommittee on Mental Health Policy Research.
  • Nationally, Dr. Beck was a member of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Division 54 (Society of Pediatric Psychology)’s Diversity Committee, an invited liaison to the APA Advocacy Coordinating Committee and represented the APA at Advocacy Summits on Capitol Hill.
  • Dr. Mische-Lawson participated in the World Leisure Organization Diversity, Access and Inclusion Special Interest Group Meeting.
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