Belgravia Foundation partner with Bariatric Support Australia to create improved pathways to participation for all

Belgravia Foundation, in collaboration with Belgravia Leisure, is proud to announce and celebrate longstanding partnership with Bariatric Support Australia (BSA) — a passionate community that supports individuals before and after weight loss surgery on their journey to improved health and wellbeing.

This partnership began through a shared connection at Austin Health and quickly grew thanks to a strong alignment in values and a shared mission: ensuring everyone has the opportunity to live a happy and healthy lives.

Together with BSA, we co-designed and delivered a needs assessment survey to better understand the experiences of people navigating bariatric surgery and their engagement in leisure, recreation, and physical activity. With 123 participants contributing, the findings offer powerful insight into the motivators, barriers, and preferences that shape their access and inclusion journey.

What We Learned

Survey participants shared that key motivators for engaging in physical activity included:

  • Improving physical health

  • Achieve health and wellbeing goals

  • Improving mental health

Common barriers included:

  • Cost of accessing facilities or programs

  • Lack of motivation

  • Fear of judgement from others (staff or public)

Preferred activities were often low-impact and community-oriented, including:

  • Low-impact cardio (like walking or cycling)

  • Warm water therapy/ pool use

  • Gym-based strength training (tailored to needs)

 Many respondents rated their confidence to engage in physical activity as low to moderate — highlighting a need for more welcoming, tailored entry points that foster long-term participation.

What’s Next?

These insights will inform future co-design initiatives that are inclusive, empowering, and responsive to the real-world needs of the BSA community. These initiatives planned to be supported by Belgravia Leisure’s Inclusion Coordinators and Exercise Physiologists who will play a key role in creating and delivering safe, effective, and person-centred movement experiences across our sites.

In another exciting development, Belgravia Foundation and Bariatric Support Australia will be co-presenting at an upcoming webinar as part of the National Association of Clinical Obesity Services (NACOS) series. NACOS brings together clinical obesity service providers across Australia to improve the quality of care for people living with obesity and its complexity.

This webinar, which will be attended primarily by GPs and healthcare professionals, provides an important opportunity to share early insights from our survey. Our aim is to support and create awareness for clinicians in developing care plans that include safe, inclusive, and sustainable pathways to community-based physical activity — helping people living with obesity to feel confident, supported, and welcome as they engage in movement and leisure.

Stay tuned as we continue to learn from the community, break down barriers, and build programs that truly make a difference.

 

Emma Lowe