Italian Pilot Goes Public
Mr Paolo Giorgi Rossi represented CoSIE in the local TV broadcasting in the Reggio Emilia province in the 28th of March in the program called “Il medico e il Cittadino” (free translation The Medical Doctor and the Citizen). This show of 1,5 hours broadcasts weekly focusing on health and health services.
The topical theme of the show was Medical Research. What made it topical was the public Research Week in Reggio Emilia: Settimana della ricerca. During the Research Week all laboratories are open to the public and there are many public initiatives involving children and schools. CoSIE was one of the projects presented in the program with the special emphasis to the Italian pilot, Reducing Childhood Obesity.
Developing Health Services for People in Collaboration with People
This kind of publicity is very welcome to our project, especially now when the pilot is springing to action. It is very important to rise the general awareness of the problem of childhood obesity. It was also a good moment to present the plans for a new tool that will be co-created in an innovative process involving people to the different phases of the development process
In our Italian CoSIE pilot we are aiming to create an App to facilitate the communications between paediatricians, families and health institutions. Co-creation is a new way to build services to the citizens, together with citizens. We believe that co-created services can be more accessible and perceived as useful, especially in the field of health and health promotion. We are determined to find out, whether we can co-creatively design services that really are effective, in our case in preventing childhood obesity.
Towards Very Healthy Kids
Research doesn’t always happen in labs. In the television program Mr Paolo Giorgi Rossi presented the concept of preventive interventions that are not technological. In the case of CoSIE pilots, we need to research various interventions to be able to determine what works and what does not work. Possible methods are for example motivational interviews or campaigns that support children’s healthy behaviour.
In the Reggio Emilia province we are building a multi-sectoral (health sector, municipalities, schools, sport societies, etc.) and multi-layered (society, community, family, individual) program to prevent childhood obesity. The program is called Bimbi Molto Informa (BMInorma) meaning “Very Healthy Kids”, but also “Body Mass Index Informs”).
We start from primary prevention in schools and communities by building them to be environments where there is easy to make healthy choices. Our secondary prevention actions give particular attention to family paediatricians who are relevant actors when screening for overweight children and suggesting motivational interviews to parents who have overweight children. Finally, we are building up multidisciplinary team clinics and group therapies to support and take care of obese children.