Dr Maria Clapperton Bonding with patients from 'womb to tomb'

As her birthday falls on May 19, World Family Doctor Day, it's possible that the path of Dr Maria Clapperton was destined.

Clapperton, the new director of the Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) Unit at the Ministry of Health, loves being a family doctor so much that despite her new responsibilities working on national policy development and strategic planning for NCDs, she has organised her time so she can continue seeing her patients at her Woodbrook office.

She said the support of her family, those at the ministry and at her private practice allows her to do so.

“I really enjoy practising medicine, so it doesn’t feel like work, and I have a lot of support, especially from my mother. Also, being new to anything may be challenging at first, but I feel blessed to have the level of support that I have at the ministry. There is no shortage of mentors.”

Clapperton’s father died when she was 16, and she was “a well-behaved only child,” so it was just her and her mother, Maureen Clapperton, a retired primary-school principal. She said her mother encouraged her to pursue academics, but did not push her. Instead, Maureen supported her in whatever she wanted to do.

She also has a large, close-knit extended family and received a lot of support from them all, and as she grew up in a staunch RC family, she has a solid foundation.

She added that when she got the job at the ministry, she had other doctors help her in her practice to cover the time when she was not there.

“I wanted to keep seeing my patients. I like my patients and they like me. So I had to find ways to keep it going.

"At the same time, the path I chose itself is very demanding so it is important to stay grounded, make time for God, family and yourself. It’s about making that time.”

Clapperton, 38, started her job in the relatively new unit on April 4 and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to join the team.

She explained there is a national strategic plan for the prevention and control of NCDs 2017-2021. Its vision is for “happier, healthier, fitter people living longer, more productive lives” and she and her team will work on updating the plan with an emphasis on primary and preventative care.

“It’s a very good plan, but within that timeframe would have been the covid19 pandemic. So a lot of the ideas and strategies would still be relevant today, but we got set back as resources had to be channelled towards addressing that health emergency.”

Part of her strategy is re-energising the Trinidad and Tobago Moves campaign. The new campaign will include a behaviour-change element using the transtheoretical model for health behaviour change, which involves a five-stage progress of change: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance.

“It will take a lot of media and branding, but there’s a method to it, because we want to make sure that there's more health messaging out there, more health promotional activities to educate and inform about what healthy eating is like, what persons are supposed to do in terms of physical activity, and encourage persons to make those small changes one step at a time.”

She said there is also a cultural aspect to overcome, as many people do not like to go to the doctor unless they feel unwell, and people’s diets usually have a lot of salt and fat. She wants to encourage people to eat more healthily as well as to have annual check-ups at their health care provider or free of charge at public health facilities.

“I think there's a lot that we can all do. The key takeaway is that this is a personal journey. We want to get persons to personalise the initiative, to take personal responsibility for their health because, at the end of the day, we want to build a healthier, more resilient population.”

Clapperton told WMN she wanted to be a doctor from a young age. As she got older, she enjoyed the science of the human body, including biology, biochemistry and physiology.

“Being kind and caring and wanting to help people is just in my nature. So for me, being a doctor has always been about being fascinated with the sciences, the human body and the way it works.”

She attended St Joseph’s Convent, St Joseph, and did her degrees at UWI, St Augustine. She got her bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery degree in 2010, her postgraduate diploma in family medicine in 2014, an MSc in family medicine in 2015 and qualified in family medicine in 2017.

She initially wanted to be a paediatrician because she loves children, but, after rotating through the different specialties as a medical student and intern, she could not pick one. So she decided family medicine was better suited to her, as she has a working knowledge across all specialties.

Then, in 2017, she started her private practice in Woodbrook.

“I wanted to make sure I was very comfortable and certified in my postgraduate training before venturing out on my own. So during my postgraduate training I would have been employed with the regional health authorities and then transitioned to primary care in the local health centres.”

Clapperton has been a medical practitioner for 12 years in family medicine, a field she believes does not receive the recognition it deserves. She said she is very passionate about it because family doctors have special bonds with their patients, whom they see “from womb to tomb.”

She said while she will need some time to adjust to the new environment at the ministry, she did not find it a drastic change.

“I'm still dealing with people, just not directly. I'm dealing with policies that affect people, that would affect not just one patient but a larger volume of patients. So it is very rewarding in that way.”

Asked about her future goals, personally and professionally, she said, “I’m taking it one step at a time. I’m now into this (job) and just settling in. Who knows what the future may hold? The sky is the limit!”