For Health Professionals

We Can!™ recognizes the important relationship that health professionals have with parents and families. Parents often turn to health professionals for accurate information and guidance regarding their child's health.

We Can! worked with two of its national partners, The American Academy of Pediatrics and The American Academy of Family Physicians, to develop The Physicians' Role in Preventing Childhood Overweight and Obesity (96 KB) and We Can! Parent Tips: Healthy Families, Healthy Weight (88 KB). These resources for physicians and other health professionals include information on how to enhance children's activity and nutrition.

In addition to these tip sheets, We Can! provides other materials, resources, and community-based opportunities that empower health professionals to help their patients' families.

Health Professionals can help educate parents and young patients on ways to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, and limit screen time. Health professionals often have the ability to identify at-risk children and youth whose parents or caregivers can most benefit from this information. We encourage you to:

• Distribute the We Can! Parent Handbook, We Can! Parent Tips: Healthy Families, Healthy Weight (88 KB), or other We Can! materials to parents. These resources will teach parents and caregivers about helping children maintain a healthy weight.
• Display We Can! posters and brochures designed for parents and caregivers.

Health Professionals can refer parents and caregivers to We Can! for additional information and community programs.

• The We Can! Web site and toll-free number (1-866-35-WECAN) provide families with tips, resources, and ideas for maintaining a healthy weight. You can link directly to the We Can! Web site from your practice’s intranet or Web site.
• Many We Can! community sites across the country offer evidence-based programs for youth and parents. There may be a local community-based program to which you can refer your patients.

Health Professionals can get involved with a local We Can! community site.

• Serve as a resource or spokesperson for a We Can! community site.
• If there isn't a community site in your area, talk to your local professional society and/or civic organization about signing up to become a community site. Use the We Can! presentation  (2.2 MB) to demonstrate the value and strength of We Can!

Health Professionals can foster partnerships between your professional memberships and We Can!.

• Encourage your professional membership organizations to get involved as a We Can! partner.

Start using We Can! resources and opportunities today and help make healthy living a reality for your patients!