Kids-Life!

Page content: Overview | Clinical practice guidelines for child weight management in community health services | Training | Resources & links | Clinical tools & measures | Lifestyle Behaviour Checklist | Parenting Scale | Further information

Overview

The primary aim of Kids-Life! is to improve the health behaviours of families with an overweight primary school aged child/children and to reduce the degree of excess weight of participating children.

Funding has been provided to community health services in three Primary Care Partnerships (PCPs) – G21 Geelong Regional Alliance, Hume-Moreland PCP and Central West Gippsland PCP to deliver child weight management services to primary school children aged 5-12 years. 

The Kids-Life! initiative has three main components:

• assessment
• group intervention (Lifestyle Triple P or MEND) 
• individual/family intervention. 

The approaches used during assessment and intervention are evidenced-based.  The following principles form the basis of effective, evidence-based child weight management:

• strengthening family motivation and capacity
• promoting family involvement and parent support
• using developmentally appropriate approaches
• using effective behaviour change strategies with a focus on long-term behaviour change
• addressing multiple eating and activity intervention targets
• promoting positive psychosocial development
• monitoring the long-term impacts of intervention

PCPs will work with agencies to identify local referral pathways and to build on existing relationships with other services to ensure the needs of children and families accessing weight management services are met.

Implementation Guidelines (42kb, pdf)

Kids - Life! Funding Plan 2008-2009 (22kb, pdf)

Clinical practice guidelines for child weight management in community health services

These guidelines for children aged 5-12 years, outline clinical practice for health professionals in community health services to support families with safe, evidence-based and effective child weight management interventions which consider the physical, social and emotional wellbeing of children.

• Clinical practice guidelines for child weight management in community health services.  Children aged 5-12 years (1,626kb, pdf)

  Attachments from the Clinical practice guidelines for child weight management in community health services. Children aged 5-12 years.

  • Kids-Life! Child weight management in community health services: Identification, screening and intervention planning template - Attachment 1 (56kb, pdf)
  • 2 to 20 years: Boys.  Body mass index-for-age percentiles - Attachment 4 (131kb, pdf)
  • 2 to 20 years: Girls.  Body mass index-for-age percentiles - Attachment 5 (129kb, pdf)
  • Kids-Life! Child weight management in community health services: Screening for child overweight and obesity comorbidities and consequences (Stage 2) - Attachment 6 (42kb, pdf)
  • Kids-Life! Child weight management in community health services: Referral tool Attachment 7 (67kb, pdf)
  • Kids-Life! Child weight management in community health services: Brief family eating and activity assessment tool - Attachment 8 (158kb, pdf)

Training

Training in the application of the Clinical practice guidelines for child weight management in community health services.  Children aged 5-12 years will be provided to funded agencies in May 2009.

It is anticipated that this training will be more widely available to other agencies later this year.

Training for funded agencies in the approved group programs (Lifestyle Triple P or MEND) is scheduled to be conducted in June 2009.

Resources & links

Questions and Answers (36kb, pdf)
Addresses the most frequently asked questions about Kids-Life! May 2009.

NHMRC Clinical practice guidelines for the management of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/obesityguidelines-guidelines-children.htm

Go for your life
http://www.goforyourlife.vic.gov.au/

Better health channel
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcsite.nsf?open

Raising children network.  The Australian parenting website
http://raisingchildren.net.au/

Clinical tools & measures

In order to monitor the outcomes of the Kids-Life! initiative staff that are working with children and families in individual or group interventions are required to collect information for each child/family which demonstrates changes in healthy weight and lifestyle behaviours, and parenting style. While these measures are primarily required to measure change following intervention they may also guide intervention.

Kids-Life! clinical data requirements (73kb, pdf)

Lifestyle Behaviour Checklist (West, F., & Sanders, M.R., in press)

The Lifestyle Behaviour Checklist is a measure that assesses parents concerns about children’s eating behaviour, activity, and other weight related behaviours.

A copy of the tool, scoring instructions, and relevant publication are provided below:

Lifestyle Behaviour Checklist (25kb. pdf)

Lifestyle Behaviour Checklist scoring (17kb, pdf)

Lifestyle Behaviour Checklist article (17kb, pdf)

Parenting Scale (Arnold, D.S., O’Leary, S.G., Wolff, L.S., & Acker, M.M., 1993)

The Parenting Scale is a 30 item measure of dysfunctional discipline practices in parents. It measures 3 factors:

• Laxness (permissive, inconsistent discipline)
• Over-reactivity (harsh, emotional, authoritarian discipline and irritability)
• Hostility (use of verbal or physical force)

A copy of the tool, scoring instructions, and relevant publication are provided below:

Parenting Scale (40kb, pdf)

Parenting Scale scoring (3kb, pdf)

Parenting Scale article (142kb, pdf)

Further information

For further information, contact Megan Slattery on 9096 6136 or by email at megan.slattery@dhs.vic.gov.au.

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