Focus on breast cancer, differently abled, children

A study on causes of breast cancer in Tobago, plans to provide better services to the differently abled and collaboration with the Children’s Authority on at risk children are among initiatives announced by Health Secretary Dr Agatha Carrington on Wednesday to provide better health and social services for Tobagonians.

Speaking at the post Executive Council media briefing at the Administrative Complex in Calder Hall, Carrington also announced training for researchers to build capacity in terms of the breast cancer study.

“Through the combined efforts of the THA (Tobago House of Assembly) and TRHA (Tobago Regional Health Authority), Rutgers (USA) and Wazzu (Washington State School of Medicine), we are soon to start this first ever epidemiological study of breast cancer in Tobago.

“We expect coming out of that, we’ll better understand the condition and reduce the burden in the Tobago population,” she said.

“We know that this particular study is new to us, but we understand that to conduct this study there are some concerns that people may have, one in terms of patient’s privacy…we are going to identify unique identifying numbers for those patients, so they are only linked based on the numbers and names wouldn’t form part of the issue, thereby protecting the patient’s privacy.

She said the breast cancer study was expected to take 18 months.

In terms of provisions for the differently abled, Carrington noted that Division was realigned to focus on families, and all disadvantaged groups were part of the family.

In June, Carrington had laid a motion at the Assembly’s Legislature, to set up a stakeholders’ committee to prepare a position paper on including differently-abled persons in the workplace in Tobago. The Committee was also tasked with formulating a framework for the establishment of a register of differently-abled persons on the island.

She noted that following on that motion, an umbrella organisation (Association of Differently-Abled Persons) has been formed, and been provided with office space well as seed capital to begin operations.

“The community has identified for us that there are challenges in locating persons to care for those who are differently abled,” she said on Wednesday, noting a training programme to meet this need.

The Division, in collaboration with the Tobago Coordinating Committee for Persons with Disabilities, conducted a three-day workshop, which ended yesterday, to train caregivers of persons with disabilities. Carrington said these caregivers would have been trained in communicating with disabled persons, learnt to deal with issues of confidentiality and privacy, and on earning trust and building relationships with the differently abled, among other matters.

She also reported that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) would soon be signed between the Division and the Children’s Authority to provide for care and support of at risk children.

“We are doing some preparatory work and so that there is training and orientation for those people who already know, in terms of process mapping, of those services that are to be provided in Tobago.

“Our team and the Children’s Authority team are in session, working out from the point when as persons has been identified as being as risk; the removal, the assessment, the support by the health sector and social sector right through to when we provide them with a safe space,” Carrington said.

The Division is getting ready to support the Authority in terms of the service it provides for the nation’s children, she added.