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Ministry using PSAs to help raise awareness about heart disease
Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence addressing the launch ceremony yesterday.
Cardiovascular deaths, or a condition that involves the narrowing or blocked blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain [angina] or stroke, account for some 32 percent of all deaths nationally and an estimated 22 percent of the population are living with the disease. This state of affairs was regarded as alarming for such a sparely populated country, said Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence, yesterday.
For this reason, Lawrence said that her Ministry has been vigorously pursuing its mandate to reduce the incidence of non communicable diseases [NCDs]. NCDs include heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease which together account for almost 70 percent of all deaths worldwide.
Moreover, in a bid to raise awareness among members of the public about the symptoms of NCDs with a focus on heart disease, the Ministry of Public Health in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Telecommunication and the Guyana Programme to Advance Cardiac Care [GPACC] yesterday launched seven Public Service Announcement [PSA] videos.
“The release of these videos will greatly assist us in support this campaign of heightening awareness at all levels in every region so that measures can be put in place to help decrease the morbidity and mortality of coronary heart disease in Guyana,” said Minister Lawrence yesterday as she addressed a forum at Cara Lodge to launch the PSAs.
During her remarks at the forum, Lawrence commended what she described as “excellent and dynamic work” that GPACC has done over the years to help advance cardiac care in Guyana. She went on to note too that “it was through GPACC that we have initiated a number of programmes in partnership at Georgetown Public Hospital and the Institute of Health Science Education in the Ministry of Public Health.”
She recalled that in June 2017, the Born Blue documentary was launched amplifying the challenges, obstacles and successes associated with cardiac care in Guyana.
But even with such a documentary available to the public, Minister Lawrence revealed that “the general tendency in Guyana is not to pay much attention to health aspects unless someone close to us is affected. Normally it is not my business, why am I getting involved,”
“On the other hand, we take too much for granted,” Minister Lawrence asserted, as she stressed the importance of seeking the support of health workers to ensure that good health is prevailing.
It was against this backdrop, the Public Health Minister said, that the necessary cooperation was forged to highlight the challenges that are faced and the necessary measures that can be taken to help arrest heart disease which is seen as a major challenge to the health sector.
Speaking at yesterday’s forum, Founder and Director of GPACC, Dr. Debra Isaac of the Calgary University in Canada, recalled that the support for Guyana was introduced with a view of figuring out ways to help Guyanese with heart disease.
“We started off that everything is based on education… we were honoured to find a way to incorporate education into our programme; in fact our entire programme is built on education,” said Dr. Isaac.
The PSAs, which were created by Stephen Warnica and Matt Roseburg, gained support from the Public Telecommunication Minister, Cathy Hughes and her husband, attorney-at-Law, Nigel Hughes, who not only voiced the PSAs, but also shared his experience with heart disease. Other popular personalities who were instrumental in helping to bring the PSAs to fruition were local singer/songwriter, Dave Martin who graced yesterday’s launch and Cardiology Specialist, Dr. Mahendra Carpen.
The focus of each of the PSAs is to help persons to recognise the importance of recognising the signs of heart disease early so that they can seek assistance early, thereby preventing potentially fatal outcomes.
Also present at yesterday’s ceremony was Ms. Jan Sheltinga, Charge d’ Affaires- Counsellor of the High Commission of Canada. She stressed the importance of “safe reliable services and information so that persons can be better cared for, and of course, that would allow them to care for themselves and others.”
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