Thank you.
It's a great question I'm very passionate about.
About 15 years ago, I was the first occupational therapist in Canada to officially work in the area of obesity management. Since that time I've been able to mentor a number of emerging therapists who are now taking on the role. It is an emerging area. It's a very natural fit and it doesn't require us to do any additional training. We have the skills and the knowledge; what was lacking was the integration of those skills in the area of obesity prevention, management, and treatment.
I've done a lot of work with the association in developing education at conferences. Our association has a position statement that helps to guide practice. I'm currently editing a textbook that will be available across North America for occupational therapists and students to be able to use around occupation and obesity. It will have a management, prevention, and treatment focus. We currently have leaders in the area of obesity in Alberta, and there is a bariatric strategy through Alberta health services. One of the leaders in that field is actually an occupational therapist, who is responsible for a health network out there and is taking on the responsibility of training other therapists to work in that area.
I'm involved in interprofessional education that's available to all health science students. It is focused on rehabilitation and it's available to students across Canada. It's out of the University of Alberta and out of McMaster University. Our numbers are small, but as a profession we're small.
I can't specifically tell you about proportions, because when we identify our area of practice, obesity would be embedded within acute care, community care, long-term care, and primary care, but we are exposed on a daily basis to working with individuals who have obesity and we are high profile in the area of obesity. I am on a high level with the Canadian Obesity Network, representing the occupational therapists of Canada, and I lead several projects through them and put that occupational therapy lens on everything we do. Although we're small, we are very active in promoting what we do in that area.