On December 19, 2024, the national seminar “Childhood Obesity and Mental Health” was held at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez (UCSH) in Chile, as part of the Erasmus+ CIELO project.
During the event, interesting topics were addressed, aligning with the global guidelines of the project on how to prevent and educate about childhood obesity and mental health. Prominent speakers, each in their respective disciplines, shared their knowledge during the seminar, which was streamed to the Latin American universities collaborating on the project.
Kicking off the event, the academic director of the project at UCSH, Sebastián Loyola, gave a talk on the progress of the project and the challenges it has posed during its implementation, as well as the new challenges it involves in the upcoming stages.
He shared that one of the most significant achievements has been the successful completion of Work Package 2 (WP2) of CIELO, which focused on mapping the competencies, knowledge, and attitudes of teachers, university students, and healthcare professionals regarding obesity and the promotion of childhood mental health. This work laid the foundation for the development of the online course and the mobile application e-toolkit proposed by the project. Led by UCSH, WP2 achieved the following specific objectives:
- Obtaining ethical research approvals
- Developing data collection instruments and reaching an agreement on their use
- Collecting and analyzing data
- Exploring theoretical frameworks and course content through rapid literature reviews
- Exploring educational and pedagogical strategies to define the course structure
- Defining course evaluation methods
- Developing the pedagogical manual
- Preparing a report on the results of WP2.
Next, kinesiologist Karen Castañeda, who holds a diploma in prescribing cardiometabolic pathologies and is a candidate for a Master’s in Clinical Exercise Physiology, took the stage. She currently works as a kinesiologist in multidisciplinary obesity treatment teams at various clinical institutions. The title of her presentation was: “How to Engage Sedentary Adolescents in Exercise?”
Following her, kinesiologist Paloma Lillo, a Master in Physiology and academic at the UCSH School of Kinesiology, presented a talk titled: “Obesity in Childhood and Adolescence. New Treatment Perspectives.”
To conclude, the mental health component was addressed by the renowned psychologist Andrea Godoy, who holds an MSc in Eating Disorders and Obesity, specializes in Bariatric Surgery for Adolescents and Adults, is a psycho-oncologist, and an expert in Psychological First Aid. She is also a TV and radio panelist and a columnist in the press and other media. Her presentation was titled: “Beyond Weight: A Comprehensive Approach to Managing Childhood Obesity and Mental Health.” This talk generated significant interest among the audience and highlighted the importance of this aspect in the pathophysiology of childhood obesity.
The audience primarily consisted of academics, UCSH authorities, administrators, community representatives, students, and representatives from the Latin American universities collaborating on the project, who followed the presentations via live streaming.
