A New York-based group has embarked on a project aimed at providing healthcare information to diabetics and cancer sufferers through a resource centre.
Guynaashs (Guyana North America Association for Social and Health Services), a two-year 13-member group launched the Patient Information Resource Centre on February 14 at the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) on Brickdam.
Guynaashs’ member Deborah Bristol, coordinator of the breast cancer programme at Kings County Hospital in New York told this newspaper “it is important that we come and reach out to the people who really need the help.”
Bristol explained that over the years the team has observed from trips to Guyana, that patients after leaving hospital desired more information on their condition or disease.
The resource center she emphasized is a way of bridging this gap and provid- ing healthcare information through booklets, on heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, among other illnesses, while offering services like blood pressure testing.
Bristol said the resource centre will be working closely with the St Joseph Mercy Hospital and the Guyana Diabetics Association.
In addition, information will be shared through support group meetings and arrangements are also being made for cancer survivors to give talks.
During the first week of operation, the centre offered its services to a 56-year-old woman diagnosed with breast cancer. Bristol noted that the woman’s cancer was at an advanced stage and this was a concern since there is need for early detection.
Marva Collins, a friend of the Guynaashs team who died this month of breast cancer, was also part of the inspiration to open the centre, Bristol said. The centre is expected to be named after her at a later date. Guynaashs founding members Virginia Munroe, a community health nurse in the US, and husband Lawrence Munroe, were also part of the launching activities. Guy-naashs is contributing to the full maintenance of the centre. Volunteers are expected to be at the centre three days per week and persons desiring information can stop by.