Behavioral Medicine Approaches to Childhood Obesity
Offered by the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Women & Infants Hospital, and Brown University Office of Continuing Education
Instructor(s): Ronnesia Gaskins
Location: Brown University
Dates: June 22-26, 2009
Meeting Times: 1:00-4:00pm
Fee: $800
Application Due Date: May 29, 2009
Description: This course will provide an overview of current trends and factors related to childhood obesity, the state of the literature regarding evidenced-based and other approaches to assessment and treatment of childhood obesity, and what has been effective.
Who should attend: Clinicians including, but not limited to, physicians, social workers, licensed nurses who are interested in childhood obesity. Non-clinicians including graduate level researchers and academics.
Course Objectives: At the completion of the course participants will be able to:
- Describe psychological factors related to childhood obesity.
- Discuss socioecological intervention factors related to childhood obesity, including barriers and how to address these in recruitment and treatment.
- Examine skills related to the prevention and management of childhood obesity including assessment, treatment, and post treatment evaluation and collaborations.
- Perform an assessment of a child with childhood obesity.
- Discuss treatment approaches for childhood obesity.
- Analyze communication strategies that can be used with parents in discussing prevention and treatment options for childhood obesity.
- Analyze communication strategies that can be used to provide feedback to primary care providers.
- Deliver behavioral strategies for treating family-based obesity prevention and intervention in youth.
Teaching strategies: Lecture and observation, case studies
Evaluation
Project: develop a proposal to recruit patients, treat and evaluate effectiveness of clinical intervention
Direct observation of delivery of intervention with peers
Instructor Bio(s): Dr. Ronnesia B. Gaskins, PhD, MSPH is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk, Women and Infants Hospital in Rhode Island. She received a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Arizona State University (1996) and a Master of Arts in psychology from San Diego State University (2002). She received a doctorate in Medical (Clinical) Psychology and a Master of Science in Public Health in Healthcare Organization and Public Policy (Outcomes research) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (2006). She completed predoctoral internship in behavioral medicine (2005-2006) and postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric clinical research (2006-2008) at Brown-Alpert Medical School. Her research is focused on obesity prevention and physical activity behavior among youth. She was awarded a NIDA 3-year diversity supplement to the multi-site longitudinal Maternal Lifestyle Study, to examine pathways to obesity and substance abuse among adolescents prenatally exposed to cocaine. Clinically she assesses and treats children for developmental delays, and behavioral concerns including disruptive behavior disorders, anxiety and pediatric obesity.