Mercy Medical Center, home to the highest-ranked Weight-Loss Surgery Program in downstate New York 2009/2010 by the HealthGrades(r) national hospital rating company, is offering facilitated weight-management support programs again this fall for overweight and obese adults and adolescents, and for post bariatric surgery patients.

The weekly ten-session programs will be conducted by multidisciplinary teams of nutrition, fitness and behavioral health professionals with extensive experience in assisting with the lifelong commitment and lifestyle modifications required for weight management.

They will focus on a broad range of issues including healthy behaviors, stress-reduction, social relationships, exercise, and prevention of relapse into old eating habits. The program for adolescents (ages 12-18) will use the nationally-recognized SHAPEDOWN(r) curriculum developed at the University of California, San Francisco.

Support group sizes will be limited to assure personal attention. Weekly evening meetings for all three groups will begin with an orientation on September 14th, with sessions beginning on September 21st for SHAPEDOWN and September 22nd for Adults and Post Bariatrics. Orientation is required for the SHAPEDOWN program and is highly recommended for the two other programs.

For information about fees and registration, call 516-62MERCY.