Consistency, funding of programs seen as future challenges.

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Diane Henry

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The provincial government is hoping to whip children back into shape.

It has released an enhanced Wellness Strategy to accelerate progress on becoming healthy in schools, homes and at work.

'Live well, be well. New Brunswick's Wellness Strategy (2009-2013)' is a four-year strategy that builds on the previous wellness strategy released in 2006, while addressing 29 of the 49 recommendations made by the Select Committee on Wellness.

The strategy will partner five government departments with seven non-governmental organizations to focus on four main goals: improving mental fitness and resilience, increasing physical activity, increasing healthy eating, and living tobacco-free.

"We know that government cannot act alone to improve wellness," said Wellness, Culture and Sport Minister Hédard Albert.

"Residents, communities, wellness stakeholders and government each have a role to play in promoting wellness. Everyone can contribute to creating a culture of well-being."

The concept of 'mental fitness and resilience' has a higher profile in the enhanced Wellness Strategy because it has become widely recognized that the happier and more supported one feels, the more likely they are to make healthy lifestyle choices.

"A lot of times we look at risk factors," said Betty Hoyt, co-chair of the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Coalition, "but the fact that they've included how important it is for people to be mentally fit and resilient is really fundamental to improving and enabling people to eat better, be physically active and be tobacco free."

The province is hoping to improve the health of New Brunswick residents as part of its Self Sufficiency Strategy.

Rates of inactivity, unhealthy eating, stress and obesity continue to rise and New Brunswick still has one of the highest smoking rates in the country.

The number of obese children and youth has increased by 35.7 per cent from 2003 to 2006, according to Canada's Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth, 2007.

At the same time, a 2005 study by the Canadian Association for Health entitled Physical Education, Recreation and Dance shows that children spend 40 per cent less time being physically active than they did 15 years ago.

"The challenges are considerable because we all know that this province does not stack up well against other provinces in these areas," said Hoyt, "but just because these are big challenges doesn't mean we shouldn't be working to overcome them and I think that's what this is really aiming to do."

The strategy will work in five ways by developing greater partnerships with different 'healthy living' groups, encouraging schools and workplaces to promote wellness and being active, educating the public, improving inter-departmental collaboration, and working with universities to research and evaluate how well the new Wellness Strategy is working.

The province will also establish the Interdepartmental Deputy Ministers' Committee on Wellness, to help implement the 'live well, be well' strategy and find other opportunities to encourage wellness.

"I think a lot of effort has gone into engaging different partners and I think that's what's going to really make the difference," said Hoyt.

"People in New Brunswick who are interested in wellness are going to have a lot more opportunities to be engaged and I think that more and more communities are going to create an infrastructure that will allow people who have only been thinking about it to actually get involved."

The biggest challenge of all, however, will be consistency.

"We get a lot of good initiatives and we need to be able to continue them," she said.

"We'll need to have some additional funding as time goes on because once we learn lessons of how to help people in specific situations we need to be able to continue to do that.

"It needs to be more than one year, two years, three years; it needs to be something that continues on."