Program for Childhood Obesity Essay

Childhood Obesity

Strengths and Barriers to Program Implementation for Childhood Obesity

With any plan to implement a program, there are both strengths and barriers. The program addressed here will be on childhood obesity. The strengths of the program will be community and organizational, while the barriers will be environmental and ethical. By carefully considering and addressing all of these, it can be determined how best to move forward with implementation of the program. That will provide the highest level of success for the program and will raise the value of it in such a way as to provide children and their parents with ways to combat obesity in their families and in their community.

Strengths -- Community and Organizational

The main strengths of the childhood obesity program are community and organizational in nature. When a community comes together, issues like childhood obesity can be mitigated (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002). Additionally, communities can find ways to help parents learn more about healthy eating habits, which can lead to fewer children who are overweight or obese within that community (Must, et al., 1992; Reinehr & Wabitsch, 2011). Losing weight is not always easy, but good habits must begin in childhood or it will be harder to start those habits in later life. That can put children at a disadvantage, but strong community support at a young age will help them have more success with their weight throughout their life (Janssen, et al., 2004).

Proper organization is the second strength of this program, and is closely tied to community.When people throughout a community are interested in working together to help the children, they can organize many opportunities to reduce childhood obesity. For example, camps and other activities that are community-based and well-organized can go a very long way toward ensuring that children have plenty of options for exercise in their own neighborhoods (Janssen, et al., 2004). It is also possible to work with schools and daycares in the area on organized plans that provide for healthier eating options, so children consume fewer calories when they are away from home (Janssen, et al., 2004). Less can be done about how children eat at home, but organized information can still be sent home with children so they are more likely to adopt healthy eating and activity habits.

Barriers -- Environmental and Ethical

Any type of childhood obesity program is not without its barriers. There are those who are resistant to change, and those who feel it is an intrusion into their private life to have obesity programs. The two issues addressed here will be environmental and ethical. From an environmental standpoint, obesity can be hard for children to avoid (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002). They are products of both genetics and their environment, and if they do not have an understanding of healthy eating and the value of exercise on a family level, they may not develop them from the community as easily (Reinehr & Wabitsch,….....