Posted on in Career, In the News, Research

UTech (Jamaica) public health conference, June 7-10

The University of Technology (UTech) School of Public Health and Health Technology (SPHHT) will host it’s Second International Public Health Conference from June 7-10 under the theme ‘Public Health Challenges – Its impact on Jamaica, the Caribbean and the World – Are we prepared?’

This conference mounted by the SPHHT will examine current challenges being faced within Jamaica’s public health system that is charged with protecting and promoting the health and well-being of the public. Participants will be drawn from the public-health sector in Jamaica, the medical and academic fraternities, the public sector, private corporations and the general public. Invitations have also been issued to key persons in the public-health system in the Caribbean to attend and contribute to the discourse. It is anticipated that there will be some 200 participants from Jamaica and the Caribbean at the event.

The conference will open on Thursday, June 7, at 6 p.m. with a public lecture presented by Professor Sir George Alleyne, Chancellor of the University of the West Indies who will speak on the topic: ‘Public Health Challenges and Primary Health Care’. The conference will be officially opened by Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson on Friday, June 8, at 9 a.m and will be held at the Wyndham hotel in St. Andrew, Jamaica.

Source: Jamaica Gleaner

 

Posted on in Career, Research

Preventing Chronic Diseases seeks papers for submission

Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) invites you to submit articles for upcoming publication. There’s been a major push towards preventing chronic diseases across the region. This presents an excellent opportunity for researchers, practitioners  and others public heath professionals working in the Caribbean or with Caribbean populations outside the region.

Papers should promote the open exchange of information and knowledge among researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and others who strive to improve public health through chronic disease prevention.

PCD is a peer-reviewed electronic journal established by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Articles focus on the latest developments in prevention, screening, surveillance, and population-based interventions that prevent and control chronic diseases and conditions, promote health, and examine the biological, behavioral, physical, and social determinants of health and their impact on quality of life, illness, and death across the life span.

Types of article include: original research, community case studies, systematic reviews, essays and others.

To learn more about submitting manuscripts for PCD, visit How to Submit a Manuscript.

Posted on in In the News, Media Advocacy, New Media, Social Marketing

Healthy Caribbean 2012: Rallying for action on NCDs (Part 1)

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On May 28 and 29 2012 I had the opportunity to attend the Healthy Caribbean Coalition‘s (HCC) Non Communicable Disease (NCD) PreventionImage and Strategic planning workshop for civil society organizations, held at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston Jamaica. About 13 Caribbean territories were present at the workshop, with over 100 representatives from Ministries of Health, various non governmental societies (e.g. diabetes and cancer associations), the private sector, international and regional agencies and academia.

ImageOf special note in attendance was Jamaican Minister of Education, the Honourable Ronald Thwaites who set the tone of the event early, declaring his Ministry’s full commitment to partner with the HCC. He spoke about the “bulla and bag juice’ culture in school feeding in Jamaica and it probable impacts on a child’s poor educational and health outcomes. He stated his intention to address these and other issues this and requested support from the Coalition for the development of the education curriculum which will include messages and activities to persuade students about the advantages of healthy living.

Sir George Alleyne, who, by the end of the workshop was declared Patron of the HCC, advocated for “the NCD approach” which is a “determined, sustained effort to address NCDs  subsuming sectoral and organizational hubris to a united collective focus on the task of prevention and control of NCDs in the Caribbean”.

Communications lessons coming from the Healthy Caribbean Coalition campaign:

The campaign of the HCC has been not only one the the best branded health campaigns of the region, but also innovative and participative.

The “Get the Message” campaign was a mobile phone text message campaign started by the Healthy Caribbean Coalition to raise awareness about NCDs and the UN High-level Meeting. Working with only volunteers, the campaign set out to get 1 million text messages in support for NCDs from people in 17 Caribbean countries. People simply had to text “yes” to a specific number and by partnering with mobile phone providers, there was no cost involved. The campaign ran television and radio PSAs, worked with local radio stations and concert venues, leveraged Facebook and Twitter, and staged two all day text-a-thons. Although the goal was to reach 1 million text messages, in reality, nothing like this has been done before. After five months, they have received over 460,000 text messages.Considered a success, the organizers offer key takeaway points for people wishing to engage in similar efforts:
1.  Any campaign should educate their audience in addition to asking them to engage – people cannot only ask their audience to “text, text, text” but instead ask them after teaching them about the issue.
2.  Also the campaign tailored its messaging to the individual needs of the 17 countries involved. Because a campaign like this is likely to involve NGOs, volunteers, and several for-profit companies, key stakeholders should be identified early on and their roles established. Although new, raising awareness about NCDs through the Get the Message campaign proved successful and hopefully reproducible in other parts of the world.

[adapted from Procor website)

In Part 2 of this post I will explore some topics relevant to health communications in the region which came out  of this meeting.

Posted on in Family Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Patient-Provider Communication

Caribbean literature for health communication lessons?

In three months, I’ll begin my pursuing my doctorate in Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I’ve decided to blog about my experiences in the program, which promises to be intense but rewarding.

Before classes can begin; however, I have to get through the summer. And, that means summer reading. Many people have a summer reading list, which might include catching up best sellers from the past year or great novels published decades ago. For mine, I’ve decided to focus on Caribbean authors, beginning with Elizabeth Nunez, having read having read a few of her novels many years ago.

I picked up Boundaries (2011) at my local library about a month ago. It’s a quick and easy read that tells the story of a 40-year-old Caribbean-American woman who left her home in Trinidad to study and then work in the United States. Well-educated Anna tries to navigate the publishing industry, balancing her duties as a book editor and her commitment to her aging parents. In the middle of reading Boundaries, I realized that the book is actually a sequel to Anna in-between, Nunez’s 2010 novel.

So, what does this have to do with health communication?

Anna’s mother, Beatrice, is suffering from breast cancer, one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among Caribbean women.

Beatrice first attempts to pray the lumps away. She wakes up in the middle of the night to pray, hoping that the lump will get smaller. She also wakes up to address the lump because it is beginning to bleed out.

It’s about family communication of medical history; the conversations we have with our families about health and illness. Anna’s mother’s mother died of breast cancer. Anna’s mother had breast cancer. Anna knows she is at higher risk. Despite this, Beatrice husband refuses to bring up the topic unless his wife gives him the okay. She hasn’t. In their house, privacy is respected and takes precedence, even in times of illness.

It is also about the discussions we have with our doctors. Beatrice will not allow the ‘unofficial’ family doctor to examine her, to see her nudity. This is too private. Pak, the family physician, recommends she see an oncologist. Beatrice reluctantly agrees. But the strength she shown up to the point of the appointment date is shattered. She is scared. She fears she will die like her mother.

It is also about the faith we have in our health systems. What does it mean to be sick in the Caribbean? What does it mean to be sick on Trinidad? Anna’s mother has faith in the island doctors. She wants to see them. She does chemotherapy on Trinidad. At the urging of Anna, Beatrice travels to New Jersey for her mastectomy, where she is cared for not only by her daughter but also by the son of a family friend, an oncologist why performs the surgery. After surgery, she immediately returns to Trinidad and the care of her local cancer doctor.

Image courtesy of Repeating Islands.

Posted on in Career, In the News, Mass Media, Media Advocacy, Social Marketing

CARIMAC students’ #Dntxtndrive Campaign 2012

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The Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) Social Marketing class 2012 this year for their final year project focused their energy on a campaign against texting and driving. Despite the lack of local empirical evidence to support the choice of the campaign, it was duly justified based on emerging evidence and policy regionally and worldwide. Trinidad and Tobago, for example has implemented a law against the use of cellular telephones while on the roads from as early as February 2011. The law states:

“No person shall drive or have charge of a motor vehicle on any road while holding or using a hand-held mobile device.”

and

“No person shall use a wireless communication device to view, send or compose an electronic message while driving or having charge of a vehicle.”

Breach of this regulation renders a person liable to a fine of $1,500 or three months imprisonment.

The campaign by the social marketing group therefore rightly claims to be proactive in calling attention to this issue in Jamaica. They launched a campaign aimed at heightening awareness and behaviour change (less texting and driving) targeted at students of the University of the West Indies (UWI). The campaign recently ended but there were a number of innovative ideas employed by the students in order to communicated their message.

1. The Chalkwalk

The students drew large images of their campaign logo and slogan #dntxtndrive using chalk. This was not only interesting for passers by after completion, but stimulated interaction with onlookers about the campaign message while the drawing took place.

2. The Walkabout

The students used a steering wheel to dramatically walk around the campus, bumping into people as they passed as a conversation starter about texting and driving.

3. The Flash Mob

A group of dancers partners partnered with the social marketing team to do a flashmob which would highlight the message to onlookers.

And there were other great activities as well including a window wash/wipe event in the university car park and a campaign song. I was impressed by the creativity and work put in by the class to attempt a successful campaign.

But, was the campaign successful? The evaluation suggested that there was only a 13% adaption of the behaviour (the target was 20%). The students have argued, however, that the campaign was implemented in less than 6 months and changing behaviour is a long term activity. Also, 13% is still a positive indicator (the campaign certainly did not cause the behaviour to change in a negative way).

This is a viable argument, however one cannot help but wonder if the students should have even tackled behaviour change to begin with, given the limited time for the campaign. Awareness raising and advocacy could have been a sufficient goal for the time frame. Also, there is the question of whether the University was the best place to target the campaign. How many UWI students drive and was the campaign targeted enough specifically at drivers on the campus?

On Monday, May 14 2012, the day after the evaluation presentation of the campaign by the students the Minister of Transport, Works and Housing, Hon. Dr. Omar Davies announced that persons who use mobile phones while driving will soon face fines, with the promulgation of new legislation by the end of 2012, which will make the practise illegal (view article). This cannot necessarily be directly attributed to the students’ campaign (unless Mr. Davies confirms :)) but it may have been influenced by the campaign. As such, a hearty congratulations to the students for raising awareness of this issue inside and outside of the walls of the University!

View the students’ presentation here.