NCPC-NCD to focus heavily on health campaigns
DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, September 19, 2017
The National Commission for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCPC-NCD) held its fourth statutory meeting today where it underscored the importance of ensuring public awareness of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and its prevention.
The Information, Education, and Communications (IEC) committee was tasked with coordinating activities and creating work programmes that will facilitate efficient and timely dissemination of information to the Guyanese public.
Discussions on health promotions revealed the fact that commissioners must become more engaged with target groups in disseminating the message of living healthy and preventing NCD contraction.
Among the target groups are schools and by extension youths. The commission will be seeking to take advantage of a school-based curricular activity that will educate children on NCDs. Social media pages will also be created to foster adequate information dissemination.
Further, the commission plans to launch a website for easy access to information relating to the prevention and control of NCDs.
Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings, who is also a commissioner, urged that these plans when undertaken must take into consideration that programmes must not only be executed in Region Four but be extended to the ten administrative regions.
She added that a timeline must be instituted for all planned programmes and initiatives, to allow for a tracking system of their execution. With respect to this, Minister Cummings said “we must move from rhetoric to action,” therefore, these plans must be made a reality for the desired impact to be achieved.
The commissioners were briefed on reports of the various committees established within the commission. Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer and temporary Chairperson of the Committee, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, disclosed that while the actual launch is still pending, it will occur before the end of 2017.
By: Delicia Haynes