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As healthcare providers, we all have an impact on the patients we treat.

It is our duty to ensure those experiences are helpful and not harmful. 

Interdisciplinary Healthcare Providers

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Physcians, Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurses

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Registered Dieticians

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Physical Therapy Session

Physical or occupational therapists

Mental and behavioral health providers

Challenges with Obesity

Research shows that Black women experience some of the highest obesity rates in the nation, as nearly 2/3 of the population meet BMI criteria for obesity, and Black female adolescents are on the pathway to these same inequities from an early age.
Obesity affects all communities differently.

Black and Latinx/Hispanic youth, and those from lower-income households, experience disproportionate rates of obesity driven by intersecting behavioral, cultural, psychosocial, and environmental factors.

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Seeing the Disparities
 

These disparities are not simply individual challenges; they reflect the enduring effects of structural racism, socioeconomic inequity, and limited access to healthy foods, safe activity spaces, insurance coverage, and effective treatment options.
Many Black families also carry a long history of medical mistrust rooted in biased care, harmful interactions, and exclusion from health-promoting systems. This is compounded by the impact of both conscious and unconscious racism within clinical encounters, along with societal beauty standards that seldom include or affirm Black girls.

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Our Role as Pediatric Providers

Here, you’ll find tools designed to elevate culturally attuned, family-centered, and equity-driven tools and resources for obesity treatment—because every child deserves compassionate, high-quality care, and every clinician deserves support in delivering it.
By engaging with this resource hub, you are joining a movement to close long-standing gaps in care, strengthen trust, and support adolescents who have too often been underserved

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Expert Corner: Hear from an adolescent medicine specialist.

Meet Dr. Sari Bentsianov! - Adolescent Medicine Physician
00:35
Common Adolescent Challenges to Consider with Dr. Benstianov
01:12
Provider and Family Collaboration w/ Dr. Bentsianov
02:20
The Role of Mental Health in Adolescent Treatment w/ Dr. Bentsianov
01:30

Find resources linked below to help support your patients:

Nutritional Cooking
FOOD & NUTRITION RESOURCES
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WORKING WITH FAMILIES
Doing Squats
RESOURCES FOR HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Contact Me:

Patricia Palmer, LCSW
Doctor of Social Work Candidate
Psp100@scarletmail.rutgers.edu
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