Fat police are here..man locked up for being over weight...

[Guest guest]

Friday, February 25, 2005 5:53 PM

[Power Hour II] FAt police are here..man locked up

for being over

weight...PT1

 

 

Fat police lock up Chris

 

 

 

Ordeal ... Chris was dragged

off in tears by authorities

 

 

 

 

 

 

By JACQUI THORNTON

Health Editor

 

SOBBING 31-stone Chris Leppard was dragged off to a

mental hospital

against his will by meddling social workers and police.

 

Chris, 23, has been forcibly detained for a month

because he cannot

stop eating.

 

The authorities used powers normally used to detain

mentally ill

people who might harm themselves or others.

 

They locked him up despite the fact neither he nor

his family wanted

him to go. Last night Chris’s furious mother Anne said he

has no mental

problems and was winning his fight against the rare illness

that compels him

to eat.

 

 

 

TV report ... Chris on documentary last month

 

 

 

Chris’s case was condemned by opponents of a nanny

state. They asked

whether others with life-threatening addictions could be

next.

 

Mum Anne, 49, told of the agonising moment the

ambulance came to take

Chris — without warning.

 

She said: “Four people turned up and after some

questions, said they

were taking him away. Chris was really upset, crying,

saying he didn’t want

to go and that he wasn’t mental.

 

“We didn’t know they were coming to take him. He is

being punished for

being ill. He has a physical problem. He was working well

towards losing

weight.

 

 

 

Support ... with mum Anne

 

 

 

“He asked social services to give him six months to

prove he could

lose weight. They didn't give him six days. I had stopped

giving him money

for food. For the first time in years we were getting

somewhere. We had

locked food cupboards, that was a big step.”

 

Chris, of Hastings, East Sussex, suffers from an

incurable condition

called Prader-Willi Syndrome. It means he can’t tell when

his stomach is

full and could eat so much that it will kill him.

 

East Sussex social services intervened after Chris

appeared in a BBC1

documentary last month.

 

Anne said she asked for the six months grace to prove

he could lose

weight. He was already on a diet and exercising.

 

But the authorities shipped him off to a specialist

eating disorder

unit at the Eastbourne Clinic where he will be assessed for

up to 28 days.

 

Shadow Health Minister Tim Loughton was outraged. He

said: “It’s a

taste of things to come if the Government’s draft Mental

Health Act becomes

law. It will subject people who are not strictly suffering

from mental

illness, to sectioning.”

 

Angry Libertarian Alliance spokesman Dr Sean Gabb

said: “What on earth

justifies the intervention of the police and compels him to

have medical

treatment?”

 

East Sussex County Council said “all proper

procedures have been

followed” — and such orders were “in the interests of that

person’s health

or safety or to protect other people”.

[Milo]

 

 

 

This article comes just on the heels of this week's

earlier post: "

Too Fat? It's off to the Insane Asylum You Go. "

 

Although the incident above happened in the UK, there

are widespread

instances of similar police state tactics being used

against the obese here

in the US.

 

And it always come back to this: the State " needs "

more control.

Loving Big Brother needs extra powers to control your

weight, your health,

your thoughts...

 

State unveils plan to tackle obesity

Idea lacks funding or mandates so far

 

The Arizona Republic | February 25, 2005

By Janie Magruder

 

Arizona is flunking efforts to reduce obesity in its

residents, but

officials hope a plan released Thursday will help the state

get in shape.

 

The Arizona Nutrition and Physical Activity State

Plan offers

recommendations, but no mandates or funding, unlike those

in other states

that require schools to send obesity-risk information home

on student report

cards or pay state workers to become healthier.

 

The Arizona plan offers ideas such as changing

building codes to

promote healthy community designs, building lactation rooms

in businesses

and teaching parents how to feed their children and get

them moving.

 

It's a good start, said Matthew Mayer of Chandler,

who at 396 pounds

is morbidly obese. Mayer applauded recommendations to

improve nutrition in

schools and better educate health care professionals on

obesity-prevention

steps.

 

But it may be too little, he said, given the scope of

Arizona's

obesity problem.

 

" It's the equivalent of putting out a forest fire

with a garden hose, "

said Mayer, 33.

 

Mayer, who faces gastric-bypass surgery in June, is

trying to instill

healthy eating and exercise habits in his 4-year-old son.

 

Officials released the state plan Thursday during a

daylong conference

on obesity organized by the state Department of Health

Services. The plan

comes a year after Gov. Janet Napolitano directed the

agency to do something

about the rising obesity epidemic.

 

Now, it's up to the 280{check} conference

participants - from parents

and physicians to employers and educators - to share the

report with their

bosses, patients and co-workers and to implement

suggestions in " small

steps. "

 

" I don't think anyone in this room thinks we've come

up with all the

answers or that we can solve this in the short term, " said

Renae Cunnien,

manager of the state health department's obesity prevention

program. " But

they know that it better start with us, and it better start

now. "

 

Nearly six in 10 adults in Arizona are overweight or

obese, placing

them at risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer

and early death. In

August, 23 states, including Arizona, received " Fs " in the

nation's first

report card on obesity, issued by the University of

Baltimore, for failing

to require physical education, improve school nutrition or

eliminate junk

food on campus.

 

Steps to change that are under way.

 

Bills that would ban the sale of soda and candy

during school hours

and explore requiring PE in schools, currently a decision

that's left up to

local districts, are being debated in the state

Legislature.

 

Linda Adamski, who taught school in Nebraska for

nearly 20 years

before moving to Arizona several years ago, is shocked that

PE is optional.

 

Adamski, a PE teacher at Bogle Junior High in

Chandler, said the daily

class, now required of all seventh-graders, will become

optional and less

often next year, to make time for more math in the school

day.

 

" I understand why they are going in that direction,

the emphasis the

state places on math scores, " she said. " But I'm very

concerned about the

lack of physical activity for kids. "

 

The plan has other suggestions that were implemented

years ago in the

private sector.

 

Marley Park, a 956-acre subdivision set to open in

Surprise this fall,

is being built as a " walkable community, " with a wide

sidewalk beneath a

major road for safety. It offers pedestrian access from

homes to nearby

retail, enabling residents to avoid busy streets.

 

The development by Scottsdale's DMB Associates Inc.

also will offer

healthy cooking demonstrations and talks with nutritionists

in its community

center and will set up groups of residents to walk

neighborhood children to

and from the local school.

 

" It's important to allow people to be easily

healthy, " said Paula

Randolph, Marley Park's director of community operations.

 

Convenience is a factor for Shawnte Johnson, a

27-year-old Phoenix

mother who works full time and faces a long commute every

day. When

something has to give in her schedule, it's always

exercise.

 

" I enjoy working out, I don't have the problem of it

being punishment

and pain, " said Johnson, who attended Thursday's kickoff of

the plan. " I

guess I need to get up earlier. "

 

Martha Hiett, a senior policy adviser at the health

department in

Arkansas, the one state earning a " B " on the obesity report

card, said such

plans don't work without the cooperation of all parties.

Arizona's plan is

" a good place to start, " Hiett said, but it needs a

catalyst.

 

" Recommendations are always good, and I'm sure it

will go a long way

in raising awareness and getting some buy-in, " Hiett said.

" But one of the

things that made it work here is we have the Department of

Health,

Department of Human Services and Department of Education

all charged with

bringing this about. Who's going to make it happen (in

Arizona)? "

 

It may come down to financial considerations, said

William Dietz of

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. " It will

break the bank,

literally, " said Dietz, who heads the CDC's Chronic Disease

Prevention and

Nutrition Services Division.

 

The United States spent nearly $93 billion in 2002

treating

obesity-related diseases, according to Health Affairs , a

Maryland-based

health policy and research journal.

 

" But we do have a unique opportunity in our lifetime

to invest in

prevention of obesity, " Dietz said at Thursday's

conference. Julie Crichton,

a Scottsdale anesthesiologist who also attended the

conference, worries that

obesity education and prevention doesn't start early

enough. Crichton, the

mother of two young children, said preschools should be

teaching about

nutrition, and public health advocates should be as

concerned about

informing parents about nutrition as they are about pool

fences and car

seats.

 

" It's so much easier and more successful to begin

with healthy

behaviors, " she said.

 

 

 

 

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