New Director of the Pan American Health Organization, Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, has pledged PAHO’s commitment and support to work with small island developing states to swiftly implement interventions for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health.
Dr. Barbosa was addressing the first day of the Ministerial Conference on Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health, this morning, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Two Mile Hill, St. Michael. It is being hosted by the World Health Organization, PAHO, and the Government of Barbados, and runs from June 13 to 16.
The PAHO Director outlined a strategy to effectively tackle and arrest the problem of the rising number of persons with NCDs and mental health conditions in SIDS countries.
“First, NCDs and mental health must be mainstreamed within the primary health care system. This means increasing access to screening, diagnosis and treatment for NCDs and mental health. It means reorienting our health systems towards community-based care.
“And, it means reducing the geographic, financial, and knowledge barriers to ensuring more people can appropriately manage their chronic conditions. I pledge my unwavering commitment to work with countries in our region to expand these NCDs and mental health services as we work towards universal health coverage and universal health access,” Dr. Barbosa stated.
The second tier of the strategy, he pointed out, requires multisectoral collaboration to address the underlying socio-economic factors driving NCDs and mental health challenges.
Dr. Barbosa said nowhere was this more clear than in SIDS countries, which are especially vulnerable to economic and commercial determinants of health. He added that there needed to be engagement with civil society, professional associations and people with lived experience to enact policies to help prevent NCDs.
“One key example is front-of-package labelling to promote healthy eating. Carrying this out in SIDS countries that are heavily reliant on trade and importation of food products requires a harmonised approach across borders and sectors.
“However, the region has experienced fierce opposition to proposed nutrition labelling, despite clear evidence of the benefits associated with providing nutrition information on food packages. I urge all of us to act in unison in adopting front-of-package labels,” he stated.
The PAHO Director said the final tier consisted of building on the guidance provided in the Port-of-Spain Declaration and Samoa Pathway, to reinforce NCD risk factor policies, strengthen primary care services for NCDs and mental health, and improve surveillance.
“It will take continued cross-Caribbean and broader Pan-American partnership to fully realise the commitments in these landmark agreements. PAHO stands ready to support these efforts and help reduce the impact of NCDs and mental health in each and every SIDS country in our region. Progress on NCDs depends not only on technical expertise, but more importantly, on political leadership,” Dr. Barbosa reinforced.
He said what has been achieved so far in small island developing states in relation to NCDs and mental health was a “hopeful sign of progress”, but added that current efforts were not enough to reach the Sustainable Development Goal of a one-third reduction in NCD premature mortality by 2030.
“This is an ambitious, but feasible goal. That’s why this meeting is, above all, an invitation for us to embrace this agenda with all our might and go above and beyond what we’ve done up to now. We count on your commitment, investment and action, just as we count on each other to address NCDs and mental health together,” he emphasised.