"A Vaccine of Resilience"

After Thursday’s exciting gala (don’t worry, I’m not skipping it, this post is still to come) Friday began with a very interesting talk by Dr. Gail McVey, a psychologist and researcher at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and Director of the Ontario Community Outreach Program for Eating Disorders. Dr. McVey spoke about her research in the area of eating disorders in youth, and specifically her research on adult influencers. She emphasized that the issue of weight-related disorders is highly complex and requires complex treatment; instead of treating the problem when it arises it would be best to prevent it from happening in the first place. This prevention work, a “vaccine of resilience”, must happen before or during early adolescence.

In my opinion, one of the most interesting parts of Dr. McVey’s talk was the research she has done into the Girl Talk program. Girl Talk peer support groups are led by Public health nurses. The nurses work with younger girls, prior to the usual time that problems may arise. The hope is that the girls in the group can then become student leaders in the school population. Working in a group also helped to provide the girls with a sense of connectedness and belonging, which in turn leads to increased resiliency. A very interesting video on the Girl Talk program was shown; it featured interviews with many student participants and it was clear that the girls really felt that the program was helpful.

Dr. McVey also found that mental health plays a large role in disordered eating. Not only can mental health promotion be an important factor in childhood obesity prevention, but girls as young as grade six say that they benefit from stress management activities. People sitting around me commented that these findings bode well for the Sudbury & District Health Unit’s recently launched Can You Feel It? campaign!

Dr. McVey has made much of her research available online for those interested to read further. If you want more information check out these websites:

· http://www.ocoped.ca
· http://www.obesityandeatingdisordersymposium.ca
· http://www.chsrgevents.ca

Dr. McVey and her team have also developed a website for teachers and others working with students to learn tips to help deal with issues such as weight related teasing. It can be found at http://research.aboutkidshealth.ca/thestudentbody/home.asp

-Josh