Regional Health experts offer support to Cayman

(CNS): Members of the Caribbean Health Research Council (CHRC) have commended some of the work going on in the health sector in the Cayman Islands on a recent visit. CHRC Director Dr. Donald T. Simeon and Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer Elizabeth Lloyd visited Grand Cayman last month at the invitation of Minister for Health and Human Services who said he wanted to strengthen ties with the council. “My Ministry is very interested in utilizing CHRC’s technical expertise to inform the development of policy,” Minister Anthony Eden said.

In addition to the Minister and the ministry officials, Dr. Simeon and Ms. Lloyd met with ministry heads of departments, Chief Executive Officers, as well as representatives from the Nurses’ Association, Medical and Dental Council, and Cayman’s HIV/AIDS programme.

 “I am very pleased with the number of developments within the Cayman Islands, especially the recently enacted smoking legislation, which is currently only being discussed in other Caribbean countries,” Dr. Simeon said. “This development is especially important in the context of the public health and primary health care initiatives.”

The representatives said they were pleased that the Cayman Islands will make two presentations this year at the CHRC annual health research conference in St. Lucia. Lloyd encouraged local practitioners to submit research papers for next year’s conference. “Good research is being generated in the Cayman Islands,” she said.

During the visit, staff of the Ministry and the Health Services Authority did presentations on primary healthcare and public health initiatives. CHRC representatives then offered feedback on how to further develop these initiatives, by incorporating monitoring and evaluation techniques into the plans.

Dr Simeon said it was encouraging to see that the Ministry recognises the multi-sectoral nature of health impacts, and have involved various partner agencies in addressing health issues.

He and Lloyd also proposed to assist the Ministry and its agencies through training workshops on building research, and monitoring and evaluating capacity.