Physiotherapist and childhood obesity expert Grace O’Malley (pictured, courtesy of RCSI) took a prominent role when World Health Organisation (WHO) delegates on a fact-finding mission visited the Dublin-based Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) earlier this month.
Dr O’Malley presented the delegates – who hailed from Turkey, Slovenia, Slovakia, Portugal and Spain – with information about Ireland’s Obesity Model of Care. A senior lecturer in RCSI’s School of Physiotherapy, Dr O’Malley, who is also clinical lead in the Healthy Living Service at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), told the WHO delegation about CHI’s service for complex obesity in children and young people.
The WHO European Centre for Primary Health Care group visit was aimed at supporting WHO European Region countries seeking to align efforts with the global acceleration plan to stop obesity, helping them meet UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: good health and wellbeing.
‘Ireland’s Obesity Model of Care for the Management of Overweight and Obesity serves as a world-leading example of how to plan obesity care services to address secondary prevention, tertiary prevention and treatment of childhood obesity’ [Grace O’Malley]
Children’s ‘right to health care’
Dr O’Malley, a key figure in the RCSI’s Obesity Research and Care Group – which she helped to establish in 2017 – said she was ‘delighted’ to showcase the ‘excellent work’ undertaken by CHI and RCSI teams in providing multidisciplinary evidence-based care for children and young people with obesity.
‘Our goal is to translate research and policy into action so that we can build capacity throughout the health service and ensure children’s rights are adhered to – specifically their right to access healthcare and treatment for obesity,’ Dr O’Malley noted.
‘The health and social impacts of childhood obesity threaten the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3.4, which aims to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases.’
Alarming rise in obesity rates among children and adolescents
Dr O’Malley added that in addition to preventing obesity, health services across the globe had to address obesity treatment. ‘Ireland’s Obesity Model of Care for the Management of Overweight and Obesity serves as a world-leading example of how to plan obesity care services to address secondary prevention, tertiary prevention and treatment of childhood obesity.’
The WHO delegation was in Ireland as part of a WHO Demonstration Platform hosted by Ireland’s Department of Health. Obesity is a critical global health challenge with severe implications for individuals and health systems. From 1990 to 2022, obesity rates among children and adolescents aged 5-19 years quadrupled from 2 to 8 per cent, while adult obesity more than doubled from 7 to 16 per cent.
This rise contributes to the surge in other noncommunicable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The WHO delegates also learned about the CHI service’s efforts in training healthcare professionals in obesity management across Ireland, as well as its support for evidence-based service improvements and the integration of care throughout the healthcare system.
RCSI was ‘first to offer mandatory obesity training to physio students in Ireland‘
RCSI is the first university in Ireland to introduce mandatory obesity training for undergraduate medicine and physiotherapy students. Since 2022, RCSI has delivered paediatric obesity training to more than 3,000 current and future healthcare professionals with over 8,000 hours of training completed to date. The training programme was developed initially as a Sláintecare initiative and receives funding annually from the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive.
This training aligns with the university’s commitment to inter-professional education which helps prepare our students to deliver excellence in patient care in a multi-disciplinary environment, and with its dedication to UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 – good health and well-being.
The LANDSCAPE Project, which is co-led by Dr O’Malley and Sarah O’Brien from the Health Service Executive (HSE), explores how designated services for child and adolescent obesity should be implemented in collaboration with professionals, healthcare managers and families as expert stakeholders. The project was part of an Applied Partnership Award, co-funded by the Health Research Board and the HSE Health and Wellbeing Division.
Obesity care services
Learn more about RCSI’s Obesity Research and Care Group here.
This news item is based on an article that was published on the RCSI’s website on 4 February. See: https://www.rcsi.com/dublin/news-and-events/news/news-article/2025/02/role-of-multidisciplinary-teams-in-obesity-care-highlighted-for-who-delegation
