Community News
An Overview of the Janeway Lifestyle Program
by Sarah Critch, PT
Along with the rest of North America, rates of chronic disease are increasing in Atlantic Canada. Risk factors for chronic disease such as hypertension, insulin resistance, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease, high blood sugars and weight concerns are now regularly seen in children. A group of health care professionals in St. John’s, Newfoundland have been working to address these concerns.
The Janeway Lifestyle Program is an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals including a Physician (Pediatric Endocrinologist), Dietitian, Social Worker, Physiotherapist, Recreation Therapist, two Psychologists and a Research Analyst. Since 2006, the Lifestyle team has been working with families whose children, age 2-14, have been identified as having risk factors for the development of chronic disease.
Through education, intervention, and fun, the program promotes a healthy lifestyle by eating well, being active and feeling good about yourself. The program helps provide children and their families with the resources, information, and support they need in order to achieve healthy active lives. The Lifestyle team uses an innovative approach to establishing healthy lifestyle habits by motivating children to develop a positive body image.
Our Vision: “Good Health for Every Body”
The physiotherapist's role in chronic disease prevention in pediatrics:
A Student's Perspective
~ Brendon Samson, PT student
My role on the Lifestyle team was to help families work through concerns surrounding physical activity and sedentary behaviour. I would complete an orthopedic screen to ensure musculoskeletal pain would not prevent the children from being physically active. I also performed cardiovascular fitness testing on all children.
It is my hope that the children and their families will understand that health is much more than their weight or what they look like on the outside. Cardiovascular fitness level is a much stronger predictor of health than weight and children can increase their cardiovascular fitness through physical activity and active play. Along with the Recreation Therapist, I helped children reduce their risk factors for chronic disease by increasing amounts of physical activity and active play and decreasing amounts of sedentary behaviours such as screen time and prolonged sitting.
It was a great pleasure to get to work with Sarah and the other staff of the Janeway Lifestyle Program in this new and innovative area of practice. Over the placement I learned a lot about the risk factors for chronic disease, such as a lack of physical activity and increased sedentary time, and how their prevalence has risen dramatically in children. More specifically, I learned a great deal about the physiotherapist's role in chronic disease prevention in children. I did not realize how broad our role could be or physiotherapy's scope beyond just physical activity advocacy. For example, within the Janeway Lifestyle Program the physiotherapist was involved in orthopaedic screening, functional screening, and cardiovascular fitness testing, as well as interpreting all of these components to come up with a management strategy to maintain or encourage movement and exercise.
Collaboration was also a huge part of the process as the risk factors for chronic disease fall under the management of several different disciplines. The team really worked together to provide patient and family education, as well as, directing different activities and opportunities to practice what was taught through the group sessions. For me, this placement helped in my understanding of physiotherapists’ roles in primary and secondary prevention. It truly brought home the value in taking action towards preventing the onset or development of some of these chronic conditions rather than only acting once they’re present.