Dear Editor,
The EFG will be conducting its first general Neurology/Epilepsy training mission, from October 2-14, 2015. The training will be delivered by Dr Laura Mantoan-Ritter (Post-CCT Clinical Fellow in Epilepsy, Clinical Neurosciences Department) and Dr Lyvia Dabydeen (Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, Children and Adolescent Services) of King’s College NHS Foundation Trust, London. Dr Mantoan-Ritter was integral to the formulation of this mission. Both she and Dr Dabydeen are volunteering their services to Guyana as part of their collaboration with the EFG.
The training mission will entail:
- Medical lectures and continuing medical education (CME) presentations for health care providers (including residents and medical students) in Adult and Paediatric Neurology.
- Providing direct care and access to expert neurological consultations, with a focus on seizures.
- Intense onsite workshops, including didactic sessions and bedside/ inpatient and outpatient high-level mentoring for complex paediatric and adult neurological cases, for physicians and nurses in the art of caring for neurologically impaired clients.
- General training sessions for lay persons in the first aid care of clients experiencing seizures.
- SWOT analyses of the neurological care that exists in Guyana in an effort to provide the best technical assistance to build the capacity of physicians to provide quality neurological care.
Training will be provided at various health-care facilities, including:
- The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation
- The Campbellville Health Centre and the Enmore Polyclinic
- The Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre
- Davis Memorial and St Joseph’s Mercy Hospitals
Training sessions will also be conducted in Linden, New Amsterdam and Bartica.
The EFG is grateful to the several people and organisations that have cooperated and contributed enthusiastically to making this training mission possible. Among these are Dr Mantoan-Ritter and Dr Daybdeen themselves, the Minister of Public Health Dr George Norton, Guyana Goldfields/AGM Inc (the training mission’s principal donor), Bounty Farm Ltd, Regional Health Officers and other health care officials and providers, and indeed many other excellent people who share and support EFG’s mission to help people with epilepsy/seizures participate as fully as possible in all life experiences.
For additional information on the training mission please call Mrs Cynthia Massay-Thomas, Director of the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre, during working hours at 226-1441.
Yours faithfully,
Thomas Singh
For Epilepsy Foundation
of Guyana