By Claudia Liburd
Nevis Reporter-SKNVibes.com
(Charlestown, Nevis) --- The Inaugural Health Conference which took place at the Four Seasons Resort last week tackled matters such as policy making in the area of integrated prevention and control of chronic diseases and risk factors.
On Friday the group of cream of the crop health practitioners split up into four different groups to discuss a plan of action to improve the health of the OECS region.
The first group discussed the integrated prevention and control of chronic diseases and risk factors and formulated a plan of action for health policy in this area. .jpg)
In terms of ambulance services they discussed the training of ambulance services and education of the general public in giving ambulance specific directions in terms of house colors, nearby landmarks etcetera. The group suggested that a community group take on the task of numbering houses and also suggested that police escort ambulance and persons who do not give way to ambulance be ticketed.
Group Two discussed the quality of health data and legislation. In terms of intervention statistics and surveillance they suggested getting young people involved.
They decided to conduct a small study in relation to obesity in children and in terms in health promotion and intervention decided to invent ways to measure lifestyle changes.
The third group spoke on behavior modification and advocated proper eating and nutrition. They discussed health choices and the importance of good health.
They further discussed the role of the television and the radio in terms of children’s dietary choices and noted that children need to become more active. They emphasized that physical education courses should be enforced in schools but noted that it is becoming useless as a number of parents keep their children out of the class. 
Finally, the last group tackled the integrated management of chronic diseases. They resolved to make healthy food more affordable and also decided that birth control for monkeys was necessary as they were devouring crops thus making farming extremely difficult.
They also suggested making local products cheaper to purchase and promoting them more than imported products to ensure that local products do not lose their appeal.
They further suggested stocking supermarkets with local foods to show young people that there is a profit to be made from agriculture. One participant noted that the food vendors that sell outside of the schools were selling unhealthy foods and that children need to eat more local foods for lunch.
After the separate discussions the groups came back together in the Four Seasons Resort Ballroom to discuss their findings and resolutions. The group collectively resolved that in terms of surveillance health information is vital to addressing the problems of health as well as the planning process.
They concluded that there is a need to harness information and transfer it into policy making with a special focus on young overweight people and the Medical University of the Americas could be utilized for research purposes.
Data collection could also be done through collaboration with the Education Department to acquire baseline information while offering training in patient confidentiality for those collecting information. ~~Adz:Right~~
While the group discovered many other obstacles to good health such as a lack of a sidewalk for jogging and running, unsafe streets rife with vicious dogs, the stigma attached to locally grown foods and low incomes versus the high cost of living they also resolved to support local farmers by advertising and promoting local foods, educating members of the general public about the benefits of local foods and to all in all be promoters and role models of healthy living.
The Inaugural Eastern Caribbean Conference on Health was held from July 16th- 20th at the Four Seasons Resort under the theme Co-operating to Build Healthier Communities. The conference provided a forum for local, regional, and international policy leaders, health care practitioners, and the community to examine key issues and strategies for improving the health of the OECS region.
