CHAT with Urban Poling

Choosing Healthy Actions Together!

As you may be aware, childhood obesity has become one of the most serious public health concerns with nearly 1/3 of children being overweight or obese.  Eighty percent of overweight or obese children will remain overweight or obese in adulthood. Orillia Soldiers Memorial Hospital (OSMH) has recently established an interdisciplinary clinic, CHAT clinic (Choosing Healthy Actions Together) to help families and children combat this public health concern. The program includes medical assessments, individualized programming, as well as group programming which can aid in the process of addressing the complications, barriers and drivers of childhood obesity. The CHAT team has an Exercise Physiologist, Registered Nurse, Registered Dietitian & Social Worker.

Urban Poling has donated multiple poles for the CHAT clinic to help provide families and children an opportunity to walk with sticks. This has been a great advantage for many of our families who live in rural communities and don’t have access to community centers.

Here is a picture of our family education group. We introduced the walking poles during one of our family activity sessions. Prior to the session, we as a team were all unsure if the walking poles would be enjoyable for the kids. To the CHAT team’s surprise adults and children alike loved walking with the poles. It seemed to add another dimension to walking which made our typical walk, untypical! This was a great and fun activity with the majority of parents and children wanting to purchase a set of poles, after one trial walk! Great feedback from families!

BIG Thanks to Urban Poling!

Best Regards,

The CHAT Team
Choosing Healthy Actions Together