Well Bermuda Partnership Holds Annual Meeting
On Wednesday, January 25, a wide range of organizations working to improve health and wellness in the community met at the Well Bermuda Partnership annual meeting.
This year the focus was on preventable diseases, like diabetes and obesity, and their impact on the health of Bermuda’s population.
Well Bermuda brings the Department of Health together with a wide range of organizations, including charities and those in the private sector – who are already working on various areas of health and wellness, in order to achieve greater coordination and mobilization of resources.
Ms. Dy-Juan DeRoza, Dr. Virloy Lewin, Dr. Janice Chang, Senator Lynne Woolridge, JP
A spokesperson said, “The value of a healthy lifestyle is immeasurable. It is essential to quality of life for children, adults and seniors. Additionally, a healthy population is what ensures we have a capable workforce that contributes to our current and future success. A healthy workforce is tremendously important to Bermuda’s prosperity.
“Unfortunately, Bermuda’s population is not as healthy as it could be. People are getting sick with lifestyle-related diseases at a younger age. There are also more seniors to care for than ever before. This double demand puts considerable strain on our healthcare workforce, on families and on finances.”
Senator Woolridge gives opening remarks:
“The Well Bermuda National Health Promotion Strategy outlines a plan of action. First, we want to prevent further deterioration of our community’s health. This requires new ways of thinking, and health promotion is an essential ingredient.
“Each goal within the strategy is interconnected in some way to ensure overall Bermuda’s good health. The Well Bermuda meeting allows participants opportunities to share progress toward the identified goals and to reflect on the successes and challenges faced during this past year.”
“Health promotion and health education have been identified as priority areas globally. In Bermuda, it is particularly important to use health promotion to tackle preventable health problems, which are placing unnecessary stress on limited healthcare resources,” said Dr. Virloy Lewin, Health Promotion Coordinator with the Department of Health.
“As an example, we want people to move more. One recent initiative is the 1 billion steps Bermuda programme, which encourages everyone to log the steps they walk between now and April 1 to see if we can get to a billion.”
“In addition to Sen. Lynne Woolridge, JP, Junior Minister of Health and Seniors, who opened the meeting, key speakers were Dr. Janice Chang, Senior Medical Officer, Department of Health on “Diabetes and Obesity in Bermuda, Proposal for a National Plan of Action” and Ms. Dy-Juan DeRoza, Assessment Officer, Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, Ministry of Health and Seniors on “Health in Review: Focus on Obesity and Related Conditions”.
“Ms. Marie Beach Johnson and Mr. Arnold Manders spoke about the Premier’s Youth Fitness Programme. Director of the Department of Health, Mr. David Kendell, shared a vision for presenting health indicators on dashboards to better engage individuals, families and communities as they strive for optimal health.”
“Changing our culture so that the healthy choice becomes the easier choice will take a concerted and unified effort,” said Senator Woolridge. “Healthy people develop healthy families and in turn create a healthy community. If one part is missing, then the picture is not complete”.
