ASDAH Announces Health At Every Size ® Registered Trademark and Final Schedule for August Conference in San Francisco

San Fracisco. CA (PRWEB) August 01, 2011

The Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) is pleased to announce that they have been granted a trademark for Health At Every Size® services and materials This is the culmination of many months of patient work and planning on the part of the ASDAH Board, who are careful to stress that the trademark registration is part of an ongoing effort to keep the term from being “borrowed” by diet and weight-loss programs not in keeping with the original intent of the phrase.

“This is not about keeping the Health At Every Size® approach exclusive to ASDAH,” said ASDAH President, Deb Lemire. “Through the diligent work of many people both within and allied with our organization, the Health At Every Size® principles have come to mean something very important to people of all sizes who want access to compassionate, relevant and rational health care. We simply want to protect this phrase from individuals or large corporations who would seek to co-opt the phrase to hawk their latest diet or weight-loss program.”

The new trademark is just one in a series of proactive responses to the continued misguided public and political approach to health and weight. In June, ASDAH launched healthateverysizeblog.com featuring outspoken advocates for the Health At Every Size® paradigm. ASDAH also recently responded to a commentary in JAMA suggesting the removal of higher weight children from their homes. While the removal was proposed as a last resort, “the option should not even have been on the table,” says Lemire “when the Health At Every Size® approach is a viable and compassionate alternative.” ASDAH has drafted a policy response which can be downloaded from its website.

International Conference All Star Line Up

The Association for Size Diversity and Health will host its Fifth International Educational conference in August in San Francisco. Entitled “No Body Left Behind – The HAESSM Model: Ensuring an Inclusive Approach to Health and Wellness,” the conference boasts an impressive list of speakers from a wide variety of disciplines. Keynoting will be Linda Bacon, UC Davis and Lucy Aphramor, RD, Coventry University, UK discussing their recently published article in the Nutrition Journal which concluded that prescribing weight loss is ineffectual and unethical.

Additional speakers include Professor Amy Farrell, who recently appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss her book: Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture, a study of the historical roots of fat denigration in the United States; Stephanie Brooks, RD, Fall Ferguson, JD, MA, Judith Matz, LCSW, Laura McKibbin, LICSW and Lenny Husen, MD—who will speak about the importance of promoting wellness as opposed to healthism.

Newly added participants also include international experts Amy Herskowitz, MSc, a senior program consultant for the Ontario provincial government in the Ministry of Health’s mental health program area; and Lydia Jade Turner, BA, PG Dip, Managing Director of BodyMatters Australasia, an Eating Disorder clinic pioneering the Health At Every Size® approach to treatment in Sydney Australia, will discuss how ED and HAESSM approaches can work collaboratively to promote self-care and client wellness.

A special highlight of the conference will be a showing of the latest director’s cut of Darryl Roberts’ highly anticipated new film, America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments—A look at our unhealthy obsession with dieting and other weighty matters. Open to the public, the film will be shown Saturday, August 13 at 8 p.m. followed by a Q&A with the director and several participants in the film. A virtual press conference with Darryl Roberts will be held Tuesday, August 2 at 5:00 PM EST. Those interested in participating should email ASDAH at mediarelations@sizediversityandhealth.org .

The conference is paying more than lip service to the concept of inclusion in health and wellness. Attendees are invited to participate, both in the fitness demonstrations led by licensed fitness instructor, Jeanette DePatie (AKA The Fat Chick) and in live demonstrations depicting challenging health care situations and breakout groups on Sunday where attendees will work together to strategize practical solutions to ensure inclusiveness in modern health care.

“It’s one thing to talk about how a healthcare provider and patient should relate to one another in a clinical situation, and a very different thing to actually do it,” said conference co-chair, Dana Schuster. “This conference will allow attendees to practice their skills, as well as draw on their experience, knowledge, and ideas to provide an opportunity for everyone present to work together to find common, real-world solutions.”

Tickets to the movie as well as a complete and final conference schedule can be found at http://www.sizediversityandhealth.org/content.asp?id=148&sessionID=581450891

About ASDAH

The Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) is an international professional organization started in 2003. It is an all-volunteer not-for-profit organization, whose diverse membership is committed to the Health At Every Size® (HAESSM) principles.

The HAESSM (Health At Every Size®) movement is a continuously evolving alternative to the weight-centered approach to treating clients and patients of all sizes. It is also a movement working to promote size acceptance, end weight discrimination, and lessen the cultural obsession with weight loss and thinness. You can learn more about ASDAH and the HAES SM principles on the organization’s website at http://www.sizediversityandhealth.org or by subscribing to ASDAH’s blog at http://www.healthateverysizeblog.com.

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