According to (Public Health Workforce, n.d.), a Public Health Dietician (referred to as a dietician throughout the essay) has a key role in the New Zealand (NZ) healthcare system to prevent diseases on a national scale and therefore improve health outcomes.
District Health Boards (DHBs) and non-government organisations, (NGOs) such as the Heart Foundation and Diabetes New Zealand, employ public health dieticians to co-ordinate the delivery of healthcare services, promote healthy lifestyle choices and help improve health outcomes of those in the community (Heart Foundation, 2016) (Public Health Workforce, n.d.) (Ministry of Health, 2014). DHBs are entrusted with approximately 75% of the funds that the Ministry of Health …show more content…
Obesity is carrying an excessive amount fat tissue and is identified as a major contributor to health problems, especially CVD and type 2 diabetes (Ministry of Health, 2015). A key aspect of CVD is too much fatty build up on the artery walls (atherosclerosis) which the Heart Foundation (2016), says could be diet induced, thus a dieticians’ input will reduce a person’s risk of getting CVD. With type 2 diabetes the body has an impaired ability to control insulin levels. Due to the increasing levels of obesity in NZ, this is the most common form of diabetes and prevention strategies focus on lifestyle factors, especially a healthy diet and exercise (Diabetes New Zealand, 2014) (Ministry of Health, …show more content…
The MOH has developed a number of initiatives to address childhood obesity many of which dieticians are involved in. Obesity has become an epidemic in NZ and one in nine children between the ages of 2-14 are obese and also another 22% are overweight (Ministry of Health, 2015). In the before school check programme a target has been set of 95% of children that are identified as obese are given nutrition and lifestyle based interventions. Public health dieticians are involved in the development of resources for the use of other health professionals to use with children and their families. An example of such a resource is ‘Active Families’ which is based on physical activity and healthy nutrition (Ministry of Health,