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News release

Caribbean Wellness Day Celebration, September 2020

The Ministry of Health, Agriculture, Sports and Human Services observes Caribbean Wellness nationwide during the week of the 14^th September 2020.

Caribbean Wellness Day is celebrated annually on the second Saturday in September throughout the Caribbean Region. This year it will be celebrated on the 12th of September. The aim is to increase awareness and promote activities to address the epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which continues to severely impact the health, economy, and development of the region including the Turks and Caicos Islands.

For the past 12 years the overall theme of Caribbean Wellness Day was “Love that body.”  This year the overall theme was changed following consultation with key partners with the view to include the society as a whole. Therefore, the new overall theme for Caribbean Wellness Day is now ‘Power Through Collective Action” with the special theme for this year being “Stronger together.”

Hon. Edwin Astwood, Minister of Health Agriculture, Sports and Human Services stated that “While my Ministry is focused on preventative measures to help encourage everyone to make healthier lifestyle choices we need persons to become more serious about making healthy lifestyle changes.”

We invite the general public to join us in the activities slated. The activities are as follows:

Commencing on the 14th – 18th September 2020, to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors are:

14th September – Mental Health Monday take deep conscious breaths today to reduce stress and listen out for the Health Matters Radio Show Live on RTC which will be dedicated to mental health and wellbeing. Tips on how to reduce stress can be found on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tcihealthpromotions.

15th September – Take a Fruit to Work/School Day Tuesday, we invite you to post your fruit and tag our Facebook page. At 6pm we invite you to join us for a live healthy cooking session with Chef Nick on facebook livehttps://www.facebook.com/tcihealthpromotions.

16th September – Drink Water Wednesday, post your pictures, we want you to show off how much water you drink in a day. Take a picture with your water bottle and tag our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tcihealthpromotions.

17th September –  join us for our Facebook live aerobics session with Ryesha Higgs from Graceway Sport Centre (Fitness) Thursday https://www.facebook.com/tcihealthpromotions.

18th September – Know your numbers Friday-  we encourage persons get their blood sugar and blood pressure tested.

Director of the Health Promotion and Advocacy Unit, Aldora Robinson stated that “We need to pay more attention to the foods that are so easily accessible for example the easy availability of high fat, salt and sugar in food; the heavy advertising of junk food to our children; and very high levels of screen time, watching television and playing games, we must work harder to change these practices as they all contribute to our overall health and wellbeing mentally, physically and spiritually. Let us all make healthier choices in what we eat and drink and let’s get more physically active. Together we can because we are stronger together.”

Let us also remember that chronic illnesses which may be influenced by our lifestyles such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma, obesity, cancers and kidney failure can result in poor health outcomes if persons become infected with Covid-19. Practicing healthy habits plays an important role in preventing and controlling chronic non communicable diseases. Proper hygiene is also critical to prevent and control the spread of Covid-19. Call the health hotlines on 2329444or 33309 if you have symptoms of Covid-19 19 or have been in close contact with someone who is known to have Covid-19.

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