Working with people with obesity study day

Natalie Trinquard,  Sacha Wakelin and

 Larisa Borbiro manning the registration desk.

The “Working with people with obesity study day” was held on Wednesday October 29th in the MPARC building at the Peninsula Campus.
 

This conference was a joint initiative of Occupational Therapy Australia, Peninsula Health and Monash University Occupational Therapy Department.


Monash University organisers were Lisa Knightbridge, Larisa Borbiro and Nhu Quynh Pham. Larisa and Nhu worked on this event as part of their Participatory Community Development project, completed across the third and fourth years of their undergraduate occupational therapy degree.

 Also assisting on the day with registrations and set up, were Sacha Wakelin and Natalie Trinquard, two third year occupational therapy students.

 

Invited speaker Professor  Joseph Proietto 

This event was at capacity with around 70 attendees, mostly Occupational Therapists. Across the day, there were 8 invited speakers representing a breadth and depth of expertise in this area. These included Professor Joseph Proietto; AusBIG director Janet Hope and Kirsti Haracz from the University of Sydney. Topics covered included; evidence-based management of obesity; pressure care; safe manual handling; equipment provision, home modifications and functional assessment. 

The unifying theme was the complexity of safe and dignified management of the client with obesity. Nine bariatric assistive equipment providers exhibited on the day, providing the delegates with the opportunity to trial and discuss the latest bariatric assistive technology. 

The evaluation feedback from the day was overwhelmingly positive including; the quality of the invited speakers; the clinical relevancy of the information provided; the quality of the Peninsula campus and MPARC as a venue, and how well the event was organised and managed. Much of the credit for this goes to Larisa and Nhu who worked tirelessly with the organising committee across the 18 months of planning for the event.