Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has re-emphasised the importance of partnerships and public education in the quest to providing access to adequate health care for all citizens.
She made the observation recently while delivering the keynote address at the Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) 120th Anniversary celebrations at Hilton Barbados, Needham’s Point, St. Michael.
The Prime Minister told her audience that included PAHO’s Director Dr. Carissa Etienne, members of the medical fraternity, former Ministers of Health, Lieutenant Colonel the Most Honourable Jeffery Bostic, Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Ian Gooding-Edghill, Acting Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. Sonia Browne, PAHO staff and other officials, that without partnerships, we can “go nowhere”.
She intimated that partnerships at varying levels and with public and private sectors in the delivery of health care were critical to the island’s efforts to “coming through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms. Mottley added: “The word is partnership and without partnership, we can go nowhere. This is absolutely critical because you’ll begin to recognise that if we are to be successful at attaining the [United Nations] Sustainable Development Goal No.3, as this region has been committed to do in every case since Independence, then it is going to require greater public education and greater partnership between the state and the individual between healthcare professionals, be it the doctor, nurse, physiotherapist, occupational therapists, the patient…”
The Prime Minister continued: “Very often, people believe that the provision of health care and the reduction of childhood mortality, reduction of all of the different indices that are unhealthy for us, are purely within the province of the state… In modern Western democracies, it is equally in the hands of the individual” and this was the reason behind the present name of the Ministry “because we felt we needed to send a signal to our individual citizens that within their hands laid the capacity to achieve wellness”.
Ms. Mottley stressed that citizens taking charge of their health was critical in the battle against chronic non-communicable diseases especially in the meals citizens consume and leading active lifestyles to guarantee their own health and wellness.
In this connection, the Prime Minister pointed out that in the past, the diet of Caribbean people had been characterised by complex carbohydrates and exercise. However, Ms. Mottley stressed that in the post-Independence era, lifestyles and desires had changed and much of the foods consumed by the youth would lead to an increase in obesity.
The Prime Minister cautioned: “The partnership that is necessary now must be premised therefore, on public education. Public education for individual well-being, public education to destigmatise mental health treatment, public education to ensure that persons understand how to resolve conflict and violence, being the newest public health disease in the Caribbean, especially with the Caribbean and Latin America ranking among the top eight countries of the world for homicide rates as we speak in the last few years.”
She continued: “This public education is absolutely critical and we, in our country, have determined that far more has to be done at the community level and I thank Lieutenant Colonel Bostic, and his successors now Minister Gooding-Edghill, Minister Browne, Minister Walcott and all of the public health officials Chief Medical Officer and all of your officers, in helping us start to transition in this programme of public education.”
In her remarks, Dr. Etienne said PAHO had been in the region every step of the way and pointed to a number of milestones and success stories over the years with various ministries of health that had advanced health development and helped to address emergencies and disease outbreaks.
She added that one of the greatest achievements of PAHO was the elimination of vaccine preventable diseases such as smallpox, measles, polio and rubella and the establishment of strong immunisation programmes. Additionally, she noted that work was also ongoing to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Syphilis.
The evening’s proceedings were punctuated by video tributes in song and dance in recognition of Dr. Etienne’s stellar record in public health.