SSPC in the Press

Courier - By Marjory Inglis, health reporter Published in the Courier : 26.04.1026th April 2010

Father of CJD victim to give keynote speech

A bereaved father who has become a catalyst in health research since the death of his younger son from a rare and devastating brain disease will speak in Tayside this week. Lester Firkins will address a conference in Crieff on Tuesday and will speak at a seminar at Ninewells Hospital on Wednesday, advocating that patients and clinicians should have more say in the type of work that medical researchers undertake. His son Ellis was just 25 when he died from variant CJD, the human form of so called "mad cow disease" which affects the brains of cattle. Mr Firkins said, "It is a very rare condition. Ellis was case number 90. He died on March 1, 2001, and I think we are up to case number 165 now.".

Mr Firkins said he had no complaints about the treatment and care given to his son, but not much was known about the disease and there was a drive at that time to find out more. An expert asked to lead the work insisted on working with a lay person and he chose Mr Firkins. It was successful and led Mr Firkins to become interested in research priorities for a wide range of conditions and how patients and carers could influence those.

He will be a keynote speaker on Tuesday at the Scottish School of Primary Care's conference in Crieff Hydro Hotel, where he will address GPs and healthcare professionals from all over Scotland. The title is Why Patients And Clinicians Should Tell Researchers What To Do. On Wednesday he will speak at a public seminar at Ninewells for the Tayside Academic Sciences Centre

Courier By Marjory Inglis, health reporter Published in the Courier : 16.04.10

Terms for obesity thought 'rude' by many

Doctors are being given a hard time by overweight patients offended when the subject of their weight is broached, a Dundee University researcher has said. Professor Annie Anderson, a nutrition specialist with a particular interest in tackling obesity, said one Tayside GP got a visit from an angry father after the doctor told his wife their child was overweight. She said she had come across "a few instances" of health professionals getting a hard time from patients when they tried to talk about their weight.

Professor Anderson, from the Centre for Public Health Nutrition Research, and colleagues elsewhere in Scotland have just completed research on people's response to being told their "weight status." Their preliminary findings are to be presented by a colleague at the forthcoming Scottish School of Primary Care conference at Crieff Hydro Hotel.

One woman told researchers that if a doctor told her she was "obese", she would probably go in to a depression and eat sweets and crisps. Many of the interviewees told researchers that fat and obese were extremely negative terms, described as "offensive," "an insult," "rude" and "horrible." Excess weight is one of the most important preventable causes of cancer in non-smokers. Being overweight can contribute to a number of health problems and so GPs and other health professionals must find a way to speak to patients about their weight without antagonising them and upsetting them and in such a way that will motivate heavy people to lose weight. Professor Anderson said doctors and other health professionals meet resistance when broaching the topic of obesity. She said that some patients take offence at being told they were overweight or obese and let their doctors know they were not happy about the subject being broached. Prof Anderson said, "We have to recognise there are sensitivities and health professionals would appreciate some guidance on how to start talking about it."

Cindy Gray from Stirling University, one of Prof Anderson's collaborators, will speak at the Crieff conference. Prof Anderson said that the conference would be attended by a number of GPs and she believed they would welcome the opportunity to discuss how they might best broach the subject of obesity when talking to patients. She said, "We have got to deal with it. We can't just shirk it."