Mottley urges Barbadians to join national effort against NCDs

Prime Minister Mia Mottley is calling on Barbadians to partner with Government in the fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

She highlighted the critical role of public education in the effort but warned that individuals had to meet Government along the way.

Speaking on Monday evening during a reception at the Hilton Barbados Hotel to mark the 120th anniversary of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), Mottley said Government was putting measures in place to improve the delivery of health services around NCDs but Barbadians also had to pitch in and take some responsibility for their actions.

“It is clear that the government has been taking steps along the way but we need individuals now to meet us equally there . . . the public of Barbados needs to be the ones most of all recognising that rather than fried chicken and fried chips on Friday night alone that there are different ways of being able to eat. When it becomes the staple diet of our people day after day, week after week, then we begin to have problems,” she said.

The Prime Minister said that our foreparents found ways, despite having limited financial resources, to eat complex carbohydrates and exercise to keep their bodies fit but it was evident that during the post independence period there was a lifestyle change.

“Much of what we have our young people eating regrettably can only lead to doom and increase obesity and increase NCDs for them,” she said.

Mottley said public education was a necessary tool to help Barbadians empower themselves and make better food choices.

“The partnership that is necessary now must be premised therefore on public education: public education for individual wellbeing; public education to destigmatise mental health treatment; public education to ensure that persons understand how to resolve conflict and do not promote to violence being the newest public health disease in the Caribbean especially with the Caribbean and Central America ranking among the top eight countries in the world for homicide rates in the last few years.

“This public education is absolutely critical and we and our own country have determined that far more has to be done at the community level.”

She added that there was also a great need for the business and research communities to establish caloric information on Caribbean prepared foods to give consumers a better understanding of how much calories they take in.

“If we are going to literally ask our citizens to partner with us, then between our industrialists and the University of the West Indies and PAHO we need to ensure that another 12 months does not pass without us giving our people access to the information so that they may make informed choices about Caribbean food in the same way they make informed decisions when they shop in the supermarket.”

She also added that in some ways, fast food entities and local chefs have failed the nation in transforming staple foods such as ground provisions, pumpkin and dasheen into attractive meals that would attract young people.

“The modern ingenuity of Caribbean chefs and fast food restaurants have not made sufficient utilisation of these Caribbean foods in order to be able to put them in a format that may be attractive to our young people who want to eat on the go.”

Mottley noted as a step to reduce NCDs in Barbados, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital implemented a programme where community nurses would ensure diabetics did not advance to a life-threatening stage, significantly reducing the numbers who require dialysis treatment, which put a strain on hospital resources.

Also among its measures, she said Government adjusted the school nutrition policy and increased the excise tax on sugary drinks. The administration was also moving to reduce the mortality rate among those with cardiovascular issues such as heart attacks, which is three to four times higher in the Caribbean than in the developed world.

Additionally, the Cabinet has agreed that industrially-produced trans fatty acids would be eliminated from Barbados by December 21, 2024 giving manufacturers and importers sufficient time to ensure that they could replace them without affecting  their business.

Going forward, Mottley said greater emphasis should also be placed on mental health as it surfaced a lot during the heightened phases of COVID-19 pandemic.

She said Government would strengthen community mental health programmes and establish a hotline for people experiencing difficulties.

PAHO director Dr Carissa F. Etienne noted that NCDs were a prevalent problem in the region which needed to be addressed.

“In the Caribbean NCDs are only getting worse.

We know what we need to do on this public policy front, please let’s get moving and let’s do it,” she said.

In her remarks Dr Etienne said PAHO reached a number of milestones over the years and had many success stories and was active in the Caribbean since the 1950s working side by side with various ministries of health to advance health development and to deal with emergencies and disease outbreaks.

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.

PAHO, she added, is now working to eradicate mother to child transmission of HIV and syphilis.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb