TWO-day Climate Change Health Ambassador Training at Our Lucaya, Freeport, Grand Bahama. Front left is Dr Calai Philippe, senior medical officer in the Ministry of Health, and far right is Dr Caleb Dresser, climate and humane health fellow, of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Havard Medical School.
By LETRE SWEETING
lsweeting@tribunemedia.net
OVER 130 community members and health professionals were present for the launch of the first climate and health ambassador training course this week.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness launched the course in partnership with the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education (GCCHE) from Columbia University as well as Earth Medic and Earth Nurse, which is an international non-governmental organisation that focuses on planetary health through environmental protection.
The two-day training course was funded by the Green Climate Fund Readiness Proposal, which is a two-year grant.
The course was launched simultaneously at the Abaco Beach Resort in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Pelican Bay in Freeport, Grand Bahama and Balmoral Club in New Providence on December 13-14 and included health professionals and stakeholders connected both in person and virtually.
Dr William Hamilton, from the Ministry of Health and Wellness, facilitated several sessions throughout the course. He said the course has four key focus points.
“For far too long climate change has been seen as an environmental issue, but as you are aware, health underpins everything. So, if you’re not healthy, you’re not feeling well, then how can you respond at work,” he said.
“What is important to understand is that health is impacted by hurricanes. We have four key components that we’re focusing on. Yesterday (Tuesday), we had four modules from five presenters,” Dr Hamilton said.
“Our first presentation came from Dr Cecilia Sorensen from Columbia University and she spoke on extreme heat and its related illnesses. Secondly, Dr James Schultz out of the University of Miami and myself spoke on extreme weather events, in particular hurricanes and floods. Thirdly, we had Dr Caleb Dresser, from Harvard University speak on degraded air quality. Lastly, we had Dr James Hospedales, speak on the co-benefits of climate and health,” he said.
Dr Hamilton said that he hopes that the way health professionals view climate change in relation to health will change after completing the course.
“Change is something that is hard to come about, but I think that the way that you start to impact change is through information. This exercise is to sensitise, raise awareness, make more known the connections between climate and health. Even within the health industry, we realise that persons don’t have a true appreciation of how climate and health are connected,” he said.
“This is the first of many initiatives that the climate change and health project team at the Ministry of Health and Wellness are undertaking in order to close that gap and try to break down the silos that we are so often working in, because it’s going to take a collaborative effort through the Ministry of Health and Wellness, other ministries and other private partners, in order to truly get this message out,” Dr Hamilton said.
Dr James Hospedales, founder of Earth Nurse and Earth Medic, who was a facilitator for the course, added that the course is especially important for The Bahamas, as a nation highly susceptible to climate-related disasters.
“The importance of this course is because The Bahamas within the Caribbean countries is extremely vulnerable to climate change. We’re seeing more heat, we’re seeing more hurricanes. The sea levels are rising and you’re a very low-lying country, we have more epidemics to worry about and so the health professionals in the community really need to get better informed, better equipped so we can face this crisis,” Dr Hospedales said.
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