by Bennette Roach
Joseph O’Garro (MPA) signs with the Minister
Debbie Battersby (MSO) signs with the Minister
Veneita Cabey (SoSec) signs
Four organisations on Montserrat joined with the Ministry of Health to promote health living lifestyles in Montserrat, on Thursday, May 1.
Rev. Joan Meade
The private sector organizations, Bank of Montserrat Ltd., MS Osborne Limited along with Montserrat Port Authority, and the Social Security Scheme signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of the Montserrat Workplace Wellness Programme.
The programme is initially a six-months pilot programme which will eventually be offered nationally.
The signing ceremony was attended by representatives from the private sector and government institutions. Chairperson for the occasion, Reverend Joan Meade opened with prayers and gave welcome remarks noting that she then spoke in “my capacity as the Chair of that team.”
The team of the Health Promotion Unit, with Mr. Wayne Hunte as the main person, along with the Labour Department and the Montserrat HIV/AIDS Multi Sectoral Team.
She named the persons representing the various organisations. Present were: Mrs. Debbie Battersby, Manager and Mrs. Loretta Daley, of M.S Osborne Ltd.; Mrs. Veneita Cabey from the Montserrat Social Security; Mr. Joseph Ogarro from the Montserrat Port Authority; and Mr. Michael Joseph, Manager, Bank of Montserrat Ltd.
Following her welcome Mr. Hunte gave an overview of the programme:
Wayne Hunte
The goal he said is: “To create a healthy workforce by decreasing lifestyles related diseases, morbidity and premature deaths thereby giving people the change to a healthy and productive life.” And among the objectives:
“To reduce the prevalence of chronic illnesses (HIV/NCDs) among adult men and women in the workplace. To create a culture of health and wellness among men and women in the workplace and by extension their families through appropriate health information and education. To foster private and public partnership for the promotion of health and productivity at work.”
“The Montserrat Workplace Wellness Programme is a multi sectorial health promotion initiative designed to address primary prevention of HIV and NCDs in the workplace.
“These programmes are interventions which are typically put in place by employers to improve the lifestyle choices and health of workers as a way of preventing chronic illnesses. Increasingly these programmes are recognized for potentially influencing workers’ productivity and performance at work.”
Hylroy Bramble
Mr. Hylroy Bramble, gave some perspectives on Workplace Health and wellness. He said he believes that it is incumbent on employers in these critical times to ensure their workers are educated about safety in the workplace; that it is time for a proper frame work to be instituted to cover safety and health issues in the work environment.
He continued: “…a number of life style diseases have developed and in many instances have reached epidemic proportions and Montserrat like the rest of the world has been caught in this wave,” adding later, “While there is no set definition for workplace wellness we can term it as any workplace health promotion activity or organisational policy that is designed to support healthy behaviour in the workplace and improve health outcomes.”
He closed his remarks on the issue while expressing appreciation for the businesses that have signed up for the initiative. “I can assure you that this workplace wellness program integrally linked with occupational safety and health can only redound to the inherent good of your companies if the principles are followed, adhered to and practiced,” he concluded, with the reminder, “a worker who is healthy, one who feels safe at work is a satisfied, efficient and productive worker.”
A short feature address was then delivered by the Hon. Colin Riley Minister of Health. He punctuated his address with information and words of advice, “We must look after each other and especially the old people,” he said. “Wealth and work must also be driven by what our people can do…nothing matters more than your health…healthy lifestyles are based on what we eat, how we manage stress, the sort of things we do for exercise and how we manage stress.”
Rudolph Christopher
“Anytime we talk production we are talking about people and for us to continue to reach for our full potential we are talking about healthy people,” continuing to speak about his vision and understanding of the role of government.
He posited, “I believe the role of government is to develop, sustain and continuously improve a series of produts and services for the good of everybody… we are equitable consumers… all of us deserve the same treatment…for health care and its delivery of products and services, from the most wealthy to the least wealthy we must all be entitled to the same treatment…we set out to make the products and services that we deliver to the public equitable and of high quality…emphasizing the development, sustenance and continuous improvement of the things that are of value in our health care system.”
Following this the organisations representative each in turn signed the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) of the relationship in the promotion of Wellness in the Workplace.
Following this Rudolph Christopher, Labour Officer from the Labour Department delivered a vote of thanks, which was preceded by some brief remarks by Mrs. Battersby on behalf of the participating organisations.
The Montserrat Workplace Wellness Programme is a key intervention of the European Commission funded Project which seeks to strengthen the integration of the British and Dutch Overseas Territories into the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP).
