Chronicle of a neglected pandemic | Press

“It saved my son’s life…”

In the mother’s voice, a mixture of recognition and indignation.

What saved the life of her 15-year-old son was the 180 approach to the D^D Julie St-Pierre, pediatrician specializing in the treatment of obesity. Hence the recognition.

Unfortunately, as saving as they are, the multidisciplinary care set up by the D^D St-Pierre live on. Due to lack of funding, too many vulnerable children do not have access to it. Hence the indignation.

Why do we let die what saves lives? wonders the mother.

As the pandemic has exacerbated obesity problems, the D^D St-Pierre and his team must rely on charity to provide essential care to young people who suffer from it.

How to explain it?

At the end of the line, as she returned from a 96-hour call in Chicoutimi, the D^D St-Pierre tells me that she can’t really explain it to herself.

Just before the pandemic, after a cry from the heart of the pediatrician in the media, the former Minister of Health and Social Services Danielle McCann had released funds of $ 200,000 in extremis to allow her Clinic 180 to survive. But it was only a reprieve. “Unfortunately, it was funding only for the year 2020.”

From October 2020, the alarm had to be sounded again. Due to lack of funds, Clinique 180 in Montreal was threatened with closure. All this in a context of confinement where hundreds of the most vulnerable young people – children living under the poverty line, refugees, young people in youth centers or supported by the team of D^r Gilles Julien… – needed his support more than ever. Between January 2020 and January 2021, consultation requests jumped 800%.

The pediatrician does not hide her bitterness.

Supported by Québec solidaire, the D^D St-Pierre has launched yet another cry of alarm.

In vain. “Clinique 180 unfortunately died in Montreal from underfunding on December 31, 2020. It may have been swept away by the pandemic. ”

The D^D St-Pierre is sorry that another pandemic – the obesity pandemic – is not taken seriously enough by the government.

Yet it is very serious. “In 2019, the WHO and the OECD announced that we were in front of the first generation of children who would live shorter lives and that it was necessary to invest heavily in the prevention of obesity in young people. ”

Despite the warnings, the massive investment did not follow. Which does not save us anything at all. The longer we wait, the more serious the consequences will be, both for the health of the people and for the coffers of the State.

This neglect is facilitated by the way we look at obesity, notes the pediatrician. A child with cancer will have the right to empathy and treatment. A child who suffers from obesity will be entitled to taunts and judgment. “It is not a noble disease in our society. There are a lot of prejudices. It is wrongly believed that it is a simple aesthetic problem of people who do not take care of themselves.

The fact that obesity is not even officially considered a disease in Quebec does not help. This demonstrates an outdated approach as the World Health Organization and the majority of leading medical organizations recognize that it is a chronic disease that can lead to very serious complications and shortens life expectancy.

* * *

While waiting for the government to act, the D^D St-Pierre and his team have tried to find a way to continue to offer quality services to people who cannot afford them. Failing to save its Montreal clinic, we saved its multidisciplinary approach, recognized as the most effective and the least expensive. We know that the most successful obesity treatments do not only consist of prescribing pills. Rather, it is necessary to gather around the patient a whole team which offers him intensive support. The D^D St-Pierre has thus created its first Maison de Santé Prévention, as it exists in France, registered in the register of companies since April 2021.

“The Maison de Santé brings together health professionals who have chosen to take care of this disease seriously, by combining their expertise in nutrition, kinesiology, nursing, medical care for me …”

The pediatrician made a personal donation of $ 150,000 to be able to maintain the services.

Families who can afford it pay for care not covered by health insurance. For the others, we have set up a social program.

Professionals accept that part of their salary funds this program. The D^D St-Pierre, who published Restore health to the whole family (Editorial), also devotes all of its copyrights to it¹. “This is how we manage to survive. ”

Survive by hoping one day to live … Because even if the government tells me it recognizes the importance of better supporting families struggling with obesity problems, for the time being, this does not translate into sufficient resources.

Despite the efforts and dedication of the D^D St-Pierre and his team, young people in need are abandoned. The waiting list for their social program is endless. “Unfortunately, at present, there are only about 30 vulnerable families that we can help. Whereas previously, with the public funding we had, we could help several hundred. ”

We will no doubt say that with a health system at its end of the line after 19 months of the pandemic, prevention is a luxury that we cannot afford. However, it is quite the opposite. According to the OECD and WHO, every dollar invested in obesity prevention would bring the government a return on investment of 560% in five years².

To say that it would cost us too much to help everyone is to forget that neglect always ends up costing even more. That the right to health of children is… a right, precisely, and not a luxury. And that this chronicle of a neglected pandemic is above all the chronicle of an announced catastrophe.

Read the article “Changing our lifestyle to get better”

Read the letter from D^D St-Pierre in The duty