Obesity GPS: A Guide for Policy and Program Solutions
The STOP Obesity Alliance Health & Wellness Chairperson, 17th U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard H. Carmona, facilitated a panel discussion for the launch of the Obesity GPS – featuring the Alliance’s Director, Christine Ferguson, the American Medical Group Association’s Julie Sanderson-Austin, and the American Heart Association’s Dr. John Ring.
AMA: Don’t Go AWOL On Obesity
By Morgan Downey, JD, Policy Advisor. STOP Obesity Alliance
I recently saw the news coming out of the American Medical Association (AMA) regarding obesity: Under a new policy adopted last week, the AMA formally opposes efforts to define obesity as a disability.
The Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance brings together a diverse and powerful group of consumer, provider, government, labor, business, health insurers and quality-of-care organizations to stop, think and change how we perceive and approach the problem of obesity, overweight, and weight-related health risks, including heart disease and diabetes.
The goal of the STOP Obesity Alliance is to go beyond awareness and consumer education efforts to identify and address systemic and cultural barriers that are failing to adequately support individual successes.
The STOP Obesity Alliance is focused on:
Conducting and assembling research that identifies any cultural and systemic biases in combating obesity and its related health conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
Developing and supporting research-based initiatives to improve care and prevention.
Making recommendations and promoting needed systems changes.
Judging Fat People
The Washington Post.com
The Checkup
June 23, 2009
By Jennifer LaRue Huget
Be honest: What’s your first reaction when you encounter an obese person? I’m guessing it’s not sympathy.
Don’t think the fat person doesn’t notice. According to The STOP Obesity Alliance, a nonprofit organization headquartered at George Washington University, the stigma associated with being overweight or obese is enormous and has broad implications. According to ]Morgan Downey, the Alliance’s policy director, society’s disdain for overweight people often contributes to their feeling defeated, to a sense of “nihilism” that makes them just want to give up any efforts to lose weight.
As Health Reform Takes Shape, Leading Medical and Public Health Organizations Join Effort to Keep Obesity Front and Center
Eight medical groups, public health associations and obesity experts joined the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance today as the organization accelerates outreach to public and private sector decision makers grappling with the high costs of weight-related health conditions –such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Heads of PFCD and STOP Obesity Alliance Co-Author Article on the Cost Burdens of Chronic Disease
The Hill
Chronic Disease Overlooked as Healthcare Cost Burden
March 31, 2009
By Christine Ferguson and Ken Thorpe, Ph.D.
Sixteen years ago, during the Clinton health reform debate, we were on different sides of the issue: the Clinton administration on one side, a leading centrist Republican senator on another.
Today, we are working side by side toward a common goal [...]