CATEGORY:HEALTH
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By Trevor Thwaites
Inside Grenada correspondent
Sunday October 29,2006


ST.GEORGE’S, Grenada - Empowering nationals to take care of health to live long and healthy lives is the mandate of the Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique Nurses’ Association of New York. The Association has over the years been working with local officials to raise the level of health care being extended to nationals. The Association, on Thursday October 19, hosted a one-day Health seminar at the Reno Cinema in St George’s, designed to raise awareness about some chronic diseases facing the world.

Breast and Prostrate Cancer, HIV/AIDS, Hypertension, Depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were among the topic highlighted during the one-day exercise, which attracted over 200 participants from various communities around the country. President of the Association, Phylis Gomez,told reporters that the New York based group, is committed to the growth and development of the Health services in the country. She praised the government on the strides made over the years, which she says have been commendable.

Gomez, said that her association will be doing all in its power to help outfit the General Hospital with state of the art equipment in an attempt to
ensure that most nationals receive quality service at home. “Having to travel abroad is costly and we are hoping to help equip the hospital with the
necessary tools to make this a reality”, Nurse Gomez stated.

Local doctor, Robert Yeawood, Surgeon/Consultant specializing in Neurology, and Dr. Dwight Hood, from the United States, who spoke on the topic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were among the resource personnel at the one-day exercise. Dr Yeawood focused on Prostrate Cancer.

Health Minister, Hon. Ann David Antoine, commended the New York based group for its support. She welcomed the initiative, which she said is part of the efforts of the government to empower people to take better care of their own health. This, she said, is very important because nationals should have the tools to help themselves deal with especially chronic diseases such as Diabetes, Hypertension and Cancer, which are on the rise. “We need to be able to help our people do what is necessary to make the sort of changes to improve their health and prevent secondary conditions resulting in morbidity and death from those conditions.

The Healthy Minister paid tribute to the New York based Nurses’ Association, which she said has been working closely with the ministry over the years to improve the health system. “That’s an association that we owe a debt of gratitude, for the amount of resources they have put into the Ministry of Health”, the Health Minister said. She said that in the last year the Association expended a lot of funs to ensure that the country received “Crash Carts, containing, some of the emergency things needed at the General Hospital.

“The Association was very instrumental in the provision of relief supplies, following Hurricane Ivan. In the last three years during my time and before that, they have put thousands and thousands of US dollars worth of supplies and equipment into the ministry. They have also come down personally and gone out to the communities to provide assistance”, the Health Minister acknowledged.

The one-day activity at the Reno Cinema was part of a one-week tour of the Association, which also took it to Carriacou and other communities for health seminars and workshops.