Child’s play: a balanced diet and enough physical activity

«Procap bewegt»
«Procap bewegt» is a pilot project focusing on children, adolescents and adults with handicaps who live in training and residential facilities. The aim is to create, with the participation of all stakeholders, optimum health-promoting conditions at the dietary and physical activity levels. Tried-and-tested measures from the fields of diet, physical activity and motivation are tested on a participatory basis and adapted to the target group at three pilot institutions (Stiftung Schulungs- und Wohnheime Rossfeld in Berne, St. Josef-Stiftung in Bremgarten and the Foyer de Porrentruy). Topic-based continuing education courses are devised for the support and nursing staff. The findings gathered from the pilot institutions provide the basis for a set of guidelines that is being drawn up on the planning and realisation of the project at other institutions.

«Papperla PEP»: physical activity, self-awareness, diet
«Papperla PEP» is a pilot project run by PEP Suisse (PEP = Prevention, Eating disorders, Practice-based). The project is based on the assumption that diet, physical activity and emotional health constitute a single unit and that systematic account has to be taken of all three components. The aim of Papperla PEP is to integrate regulation of the emotions and physical self-awareness into existing diet and physical activity projects and into educational and care facilities for children. Play-based measures are used to strengthen children’s social and emotional skills and their feelings of self-worth. Papperla PEP is also involved in the advanced training of professionals from the fields of education, care and treatment who work with children up to the age of eight and with their parents.

«BodyTalk PEP»
«BodyTalk PEP» is motivated by the same aims as «Papperla PEP», but focuses on 9-12 year olds (BodyTalk PEP Junior) and on adolescents and young adults in the 13-20 age group. By promoting health in a way that is life-enhancing and close to everyday needs, the project aims to help children and young people develop a healthy self-confidence and a stronger sense of physical satisfaction with themselves. In particular, it organises school workshops at which experts encourage young people to take a critical look at issues such as standards of beauty, gender stereotypes and body-focused attainment ideals, as well as discussing alternative definitions of beauty with them. The concept of beauty is re-interpreted as the good bodily feeling that results from a healthy diet and physical activity. In a separate continuing education course, teachers are instructed on the aims and methods of BodyTalk PEP and on early identification and early intervention in eating disorders. BodyTalk PEP seeks by these means to institutionalise among the teaching staff health promotion topics and strategies focusing on eating, the figure and wellbeing. Besides holding a series of workshops in schools, the concerns of BodyTalk PEP are also being integrated into existing dietary and physical activity projects, training and continuing education facilities, and organisations and associations active in the educational or health-promotion sector.

«BabyGuide – Diet and Physical Activity»
«BabyGuide» is an existing information booklet for pregnant women, new parents and professionals. In collaboration with Suisse Balance and other specialist organisations, this booklet now includes an additional 20-page special section on diet and physical activity during pregnancy and in the first few years of life. The aim of the project is improve networking between everyone involved in motherhood (pharmacists, pediatricians, gynecologists, midwives, lactation consultants, parent counsellors, etc.) and the communication of coherent messages on the subject of diet and physical activity.

Scope of Suisse Balance
Suisse Balance operates under the aegis of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and the Swiss Foundation for Health Promotion and is integrated into their overriding strategies: the National Nutrition and Physical Activity Programme (NPEB 2008–2010) of the FOPH and the Healthy Bodyweight strategy of the Swiss Foundation for Health Promotion. Suisse Balance’s tasks are as follows:
– dissemination of tried-and-tested projects, insights and measures (by multiplication and/or transfer)
– constant participatory development of quality criteria for implementing and evaluating diet and physical activity projects
– co-development, support and evaluation of innovative projects and preparing their dissemination by multiplication
– coordination and networking of projects, collaboration with relevant players in the diet and physical activity sector and exploitation of synergies.