Manage Abstracts

K. Morgan1 M. Hendrickson1, M. Rose1, D. D’Arienzo2
1School of Human Nutrition, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC
2 Montreal Children’s Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, McGill University, Montreal, QC

The Heart & Hands Pediatric Clinic, a collaboration between Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) and McGill University, is a school-based clinic that serves an underserved population. This interprofessional teaching site and clinic is Canada’s first medical resident-led, school-based clinic. The McGill Dietetics Program provides nutrition consults, follow-ups, and health-promotion activities to the elementary school and community, while training nutrition students how to care for underserved families.

The Dietetics Program joined the clinic in 2021, to provide individual child and family nutrition counselling to children up to age 18, lead classroom nutrition presentations, and teach medical residents on nutrition-related topics.

A McGill-associated dietitian provides nutritional counselling and supervises dietetics interns. Nutrition consults are received from the Heart & Hands Clinic and from school teachers/staff. The most common nutritional issues seen at the clinic include: body weight, picky eating, food insecurity, disordered eating, and eating issues related to neurocognitive disorders. Consults and routine nutrition follow-up is provided. Over 150 children have participated in family counselling or nutrition-related health promotion activities via classroom workshops. Workshop topics were selected based on the needs of the community, as highlighted by the school principal and educators. Collaborations have begun with the Food Service and Nutrition Division of LBPSB to optimize school board-wide nutrition education initiatives that align with the Quebec Education Plan. Finally, nutrition videos were developed for the medical residents to improve their nutrition-related knowledge.

Dietitians and dietetics interns offering care via school-based clinics is a novel educational and care delivery model to improve training and improve access to nutrition services among underserved populations.

Encourage collaboration between nutrition professionals and the education sector to bring services closer to underserved populations.

The clinic serves as an innovative teaching model and a leading example of how to increase accessibility to nutrition services and health-promoting activities among underserved populations.

Funding to hire the dietitian was obtained through grants from Dialogue McGill.