Loyola Student's Anti-Obesity Effort Wins Grant

A Loyola University student has won a grant to help teach health care providers at a New Orleans area school counseling skills aimed at reducing childhood obesity.

The $4,000 grant from the American Nurse Practitioner Foundation is going to Monica Alleman, a student in Loyola's Doctor of Nursing Practice program.

Alleman is teaching health care professionals at John Ehret High School in Marrero a technique called motivational interviewing. It involves speaking to patients in ways that illicit the patients' own solutions — instead of trying to command behavior.

In a Loyola news release, Alleman says research shows that "the more patients talk about their own change, the more likely they are going to start to try to change."