Latest update January 5th, 2025 4:10 AM
Jan 08, 2018 News
A three-year project will be engaging churches, temples and mosques in health promotion activities to reduce chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) which include diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, stroke and cancer.
The project titled Communities Taking Action Against (CONTACT) NCDs— a collaboration between the Ministry of Public Health, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), University of Guyana, King’s College London and University of the West Indies, has received support from the Central Islamic Organization (CIOG) and the Dharmic Sabha.
NCDs are by far the leading cause of death in many countries, including Guyana and places a heavy burden on the health care system. The CONTACT Study will investigate whether members of congregations can be trained to serve as “health advocates”, who will help to teach community members, how to make healthy lifestyle choices in order to prevent chronic diseases.
To execute this task, health advocates will be chosen from places of worship in Regions three and five commencing with Region three. These individuals will receive special training on how to deliver health talks and advice, perform simple measurements (height, weight, blood pressure), and refer congregation members for professional medical attention as needed.
According to information from the project, “Two health advocates will be chosen by the project leaders, in consultation with religious leaders, from nine places of worship in Region three. For someone to be chosen as a health advocate, he/she would be expected to have a certain level of ability in reading, writing, communication/public speaking, and should be someone who is respected within the congregation. An ideal candidate would be a retired health worker or teacher.”
Linked
Each place of worship will be linked to the closest health centre to form a ‘cluster’. For example, in Region Three, one cluster will be made up of the Parika Health Centre and a nearby mosque, church and temple.
Nurses from the health centres will be trained to supervise the health advocates.
There will be a total of six clusters in each region. Because this is a research project, it will be necessary to compare results between clusters, so health advocates will only be present in half of the clusters.
As such, health centres from each cluster will be monitored and information collected.
The health centres and places of worship to be involved in the study have already been selected.
To be included in the study, places of worships had to meet certain criteria. Congregation size—ideally the regular congregation size should be about 50, but it is understood that in some areas this may not be possible, acceptance of the project by the congregation and religious leaders, a small room or area that can be made private for the health advocate to meet with individual congregation members to talk about personal health issues and an office with a filing cabinet or a desk with drawers that can be locked.
Baseline Survey
Before the health advocates can begin their work in each place of worship, a baseline survey will be conducted among congregation members. Research staff employed by the project will visit each place of worship at a designated time to conduct interviews with congregation members. The interview will ask for simple information on lifestyle (diet, exercise, etc), medical history (existing health conditions) and health knowledge.
According to Project Assistant, Melissa Ramdeen MBA, “No names will be recorded and individual information will be anonymous and confidential. Fifty congregation members will need to be present for the survey. If the congregation size is usually smaller than this, we hope the place of worship will help us to organize a special event where extra people will attend. We can provide a health talk and/or simple health checks if this would encourage participation.”
Follow up surveys will be done during the year and at the end. Further interviews will be done and other forms of data will be collected to assess whether the health advocate is comfortable and effective in his/her role, and whether congregation members are making use of the health advocates’ services. Feedback will be provided to the health advocate and congregation at each stage.
Health advocates will be expected to serve in their place of worship for one year.
An opening ceremony for the first workshop will be held today at the Regency Hotel, Hadfield Street, Georgetown. Among those in attendance will be the Minster of Public Health and a team from King’s College London.
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