The Department of Health in the UK is undertaking a public consultation on one of their policy guidelines.
They want to know what people think about the new Sedentary Behaviour and Obesity Guidelines.
I haven't looked at these guidelines yet, but I'm going to register and have a look and comment on them later today. It looks as though anyone can register to comment – including you, gentle reader.
The consultation has, predictably, been sent to the usual suspects, ie. people invested in the management and prevention of fatness. It would be great to add comments from people who are likely to be directly affected by these guidelines, or from people who have an activist or social justice background. What would Health At Every Size Sedentary Behaviour and Obesity Guidelines look like, for example? Now's your chance to tell them. Let the authors of this paper know that other options exist.
Pass it on.
Here's the blurb:
Web consultation on the development of new Sedentary Behaviour and Obesity Guidelines in the UK is now LIVE
Are you interested in commenting on the content of new Sedentary Behaviour and Obesity Guidelines in the UK which are currently under development? We are pleased to invite you to log on and participate in a national web consultation. This is an opportunity for the scientific community and interested stakeholders and practitioners to comment on the draft recommendations for inclusion in new UK Guidelines on Sedentary Behaviour and Obesity.
Please visit http://www.sedentary.ukguidelinesconsultation.co.uk to complete the consultation.
The consultation is open until 5pm on Monday 25th January 2010. All comments will be collated and fed into a final report with recommendations to the UK governments in 2010. We look forward to your input in this process: please forward to colleagues with an interest.
2 comments:
I couldn't get past the registration screen; required fields include 'organisation' and 'area of expertise' and indeed the whole thing seems to be aimed squarely at the anti-obesity community rather than the general public.
Whilst this rather figures, it's very frustrating, as if these 'guidelines' are intended to cover what I think they will (such as what constitutes 'obesity', when is it defined as a 'problem', at what level monitoring and even intervention are deemed appropriate, and what measures are used) it's absolutely imperative that fat people and fat activists are given a voice.
Again, 'nothing about us without us'.
Without seeing the 'guidelines' I've no idea whether they're just one more method through which the medics and the rest of the fat panic hierarchy can attempt to pathologise and even criminalise us without our consent or involvement, but given the self-confirming and self-sustaining nature of the whole area of research and policy it wouldn't surprise me.
An update on how you get on with the questionnaire would be much appreciated.
I put my Uni as organisation, and clicked Adult as my area of expertise. I imagine you could put anything in as 'organisation'.
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