By Kevin Mullan

Copyright derryjournal

Professor Miras, Clinical Professor in Medicine at Ulster University, was speaking to the ‘Journal’ at the launch of PEACETIME: Tackling Obesity Through Integrated Community Care in Magee. The project, led by UU, is focused on expanding access to obesity care on the island of Ireland. “Obesity, as we say, is a gateway disease. It can lead to more than 200 complications. These complications don’t only cost the health service, they don’t only cost society but make people live shorter lives and they cause suffering on a day-to-day basis. “If we address obesity upstream, early on, then you can have a major impact on these people’s lives later on with reduced costs to the healthcare service and reduced costs to society,” said Prof. Miras, Principal Investigator for PEACETIME. The new project – funded through the Special EU Programmes Body PEACEPLUS scheme – will deliver a 12-month integrated treatment programme to 9,000 people within counties Derry, Tyrone and Donegal. “This is the first time that we are setting up services in NI and enhancing some of the existing services in the neighbouring county of Donegal. “We will be treating 9,000 people who have got obesity and its complications. We will be doing that for a period of 12 months for every patient with assessments and inputs also after the 12 months. “This is a four year project and what we would ideally like to achieve is to demonstrate it is feasible and that it can be adopted and rolled out throughout NI, if not throughout national services here and beyond,” said Prof. Miras. Five thousand patients in the North and 4,000 patients in the South will benefit from the major new health care project. Prof. Miras explained: “People will be able to be referred to us through their GPs but also through other community partners that we are working with. “They will be assessed by a multi-disciplinary team of professionals that involves doctors, nurses, dieticians, psychologists, physical activity specialists and health coaches and what we will be doing is personalising the treatment depending on the need of the individual.” Ulster University launches major cross-border health projects to support 19,000 people with €20m in EU PEACEPLUS funding