ST. KITTS-NEVIS HOSTS FIRST EVER WORKSHOP ON BUILDING WORKFORCE CAPACITY TO PROMOTE HEALTHY LIFESTYLES

Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 25, 2019 (SKNIS): Several participants from around the Caribbean region are currently in St. Kitts attending a course-workshop titled “Building Workforce Capacity to Promote Healthy Aging and Limit Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) related Harm” at the Sir Cecil Jacob Auditorium at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).

The workshop, which runs from March 25-29, is organized by the Inter-American Center for Social Security Studies (CIESS) in conjunction with The New York University (NYU) Meyers and the St. Christopher and Nevis Social Security Board. The general objective of the workshop is to understand the differences between elderly health status and welfare in order to contribute to social policy design, the design of future health services and needs for social assistance systems, so as to guarantee the older population an adequate material and health status.

Senior Minister and Minister with responsibility for Labour, the Honourable Vance Amory, said that it is extremely important to pay attention to NCD’s in the Caribbean and encouraged persons to eat healthy.

“I do believe that we have to be very concerned in the region about the matter of NCDs. We have to look at the health of our people beginning from the very earliest age. Oftentimes we forget the adage of training or teaching at an early age and beginning to instil in our young people or people the importance of healthy lifestyles,” said Senior Minister Amory.

He noted that it is very difficult to break bad habits especially the habit of unhealthy eating, hence the importance of implementing change at an early age.

“We need to look more at how we instil in our younger people the better way of living a healthier lifestyle,” he said…  “These are things which I think we need to begin to seriously consider and insist in our children not becoming overly dependent on anything but being able to train their minds and keep that healthy mind so that as they grow older the deterioration does not impact them as significantly as we are concerned about.”

Senior Minister Amory said that the course is timely and welcomed all the participants, as well as the experts, noting that their task is extremely important as they will discuss matters relevant to health.

“I do want to welcome all of you and the experts who will discuss this very important matter of aging and the impacts of aging, discuss the matter of NCDs and how we could address and reverse the trends which we are seeing to make certain that in the Caribbean, the Western Hemisphere and the world at large that we have healthier people which would lead in the long run to wealthier people,” said Senior Minister Amory.

He recalled the saying ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’ noting that it “adds to the greater enjoyment of life of the individual where there is that balance of work and play, relaxation, and enjoyment of life outside of the workplace and home, and the tension and the pressures which the interaction among and between people engenders from day to day”.