Patrice Douglas is a doctor, but she has not worn her white coat since she completed her internship some years ago. Instead, she has been involved in the well-being of the nation through the Ministry of Health, serving first as a technical assistant and now with its Surveillance Unit.
Passionate about women’s health, Dr Pat, as she is fondly referred to by some, initially wanted to be involved in obstetrics and gynaecology but her introduction to the clinical aspect of her profession made her realise that she was not ready to take that path.
“I personally believe that being a clinician is a calling and if you are not called you are going to kill people because people’s lives are literally in your hand,” she told Stabroek Weekend candidly in a recent interview.
She did not want to leave the profession and she was still passionate about women’s health, but she knew that the daily hospital grind was not something she could endure.
Fortunately, she landed a Commonwealth scholarship shortly after completing her internship and was granted the opportunity to complete a master’s degree in sexual and reproductive health at a university in Scotland. Upon her return to Guyana, she was employed at the Health Ministry as a technical assistant.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was transitioned a year ago to the Surveillance Unit, which needed extra hands. This unit keeps records of the cases and does contact tracing, which she noted is very essential work in a pandemic.
If all goes as planned, she may one day become Guyana’s first sexologist, a specialist in human sexuality and one who hold specific knowledge and skills. She said there is need for a sex therapist in Guyana and she wants to tap into this niche.
Where she is today is a far from where she began, growing up in a one-bedroom house with no potable water or electricity in the East Coast Demerara village of Haslington with her parents. But even though she might not have had all she wanted growing up, she had all the love she needed from her parents and she stressed that her childhood was not unhappy, but one where she was taught a lot, and which saw her parents preparing her to become a productive, independent, well-rounded adult.
Her journey to becoming a doctor, while demanding, was made easier by the support of her parents, especially her father.
“When we see doctors, we glamourize the profession. We look at the white coat and the [stethoscope] because they look so nice, but being a clinician is hard work. It is good work. It is fulfilling work. It is essential, but many times doctors hardly get to see their families. They have no social life at times. Their work consumes them, and it is both mentally and physically straining…,” she noted.
SRHR Adventures
Dr Pat still wanted to be involved in women’s health and because of what she saw during her internship she knew empowering women in that area was needed. This drove her to found Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Adventures in 2017.
She describes SRHR Adventures as a grassroots organisation that seeks to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights with a special focus on family planning/contraception in Guyana.
“… I wanted it to be fun because normally when you speak about sexual and reproductive health it’s clinical… So I said why not name it adventures,” she said.
Initially it was just a Facebook page which later moved on to become a group with membership. It was during her internship that she realised how many young women were not aware of contraception and she found this situation appalling. While some knew about pregnancy prevention, there were a lot of myths surrounding contraceptives, such as that they cause infertility and cancer.
“Eradication of teenage pregnancy has always been a passion of mine because I know how teenage pregnancy affects the lives of women…,” she said, adding that she shared this with a friend who told her to stop talking about it and do something.
The Facebook page was to raise awareness but according to her it grew “exponentially” and while her intention was not to create a group but rather to use social media for good, the rapid growth meant that a group had to be formed.
She posted basic information on the page and people reached out to her. She began to do sessions at health centres and youth groups, but she quickly realised that the vision was bigger than her and she could not do it alone. She brought friends on board but that was not the best move. She quickly realised that she needed to engage with people who had same passion. While one of her good friends, Dr Faqueeda Watson, remains her backbone in the organisation, others have left.
“I have recruited members who have the same passion, have the same drive and we have been doing quite well since,” she said, revealing that SRHR Adventures now has a membership of 25 women.
The demand for information on various sexual and reproductive issues has increased over the years and apart from providing the needed answers, she said, signature projects have been done over the years.
One of those projects is Endometriosis Awareness, which is done in March and during that month SRHR Adventures goes yellow for endo, which is a condition that affects many women of reproductive age but can be just labelled as painful period and is often undiagnosed.
“We realise that women need to be empowered with knowledge and also workplaces need to know that some women suffer from terrible period pains and people may say you are lying so we wanted to empower women to realise that it may be a medical condition and there is help,” she shared.
Another project is body positive where both men and women are empowered to love their bodies, but even though they can love their bodies they can also find room for improvement as the main aims are to be healthy and love themselves.
Sexual health conversations are particularly geared towards women to empower them about their sexuality.
“In our society we have a teaching, whether it is said or not, that sex is for men and it is a gift that we give to men. But the truth is sex should be shared between all parties involved… We realised that there is an orgasm gap that sees women married for years and never having had an orgasm or they have trouble achieving it. So we thought we have to teach women that you have to speak up for yourself…,” she said.
Such conversations are uncomfortable for some or might be frowned upon by others, but Dr Pat said they must be had, and her organisation is willing to push buttons. The Parushi Club was established in Buxton as a one-off project in 2019 and sought to create “kickass” women by transforming girls into dynamic young women. While they had hoped to have a similar club established in another community COVID-19 has put that on hold.
She noted that even though formal education is important it does not provide information on life skills like saving, budgeting or even building one’s self esteem and this is what they hope to do through these groups.
Recently the organisation met with First Lady Arya Ali as it is impressed by her Menstrual Hygiene Initiative, which seeks to end period poverty by making sanitary pads freely accessible to women and girls. They wanted to be on board as Dr Pat noted that often people look at countries in Africa or Asia and note that there are girls there who do not have pads and cannot go to school when in fact that there are girls in local communities who
cannot see their period in a hygienic and ethical way because they cannot afford pads.
“It is a needed project, and it would impact the lives of many immensely and I commend her for it…,” she said of the initiative, adding that her organisation would be helping with educational content.
‘Not for me’
Going back to her decision of not taking up clinical medicine, Dr Pat spoke of the long hours. “Imagine going to work at 8 you leave work until the next day at 4:30 and you have to go back to work the next day at 8…,” she said. “Sometimes, according to how many patients you admit, you don’t sleep. During my internship I would sit under the hospital library and I would reflect on life and I knew that was not for me.”
The former Annandale Secondary School student, who now lives in Mon Repos, completed sixth form at President’s College.
Initially she wanted to become a lawyer but in third form she was fascinated by a television show which involved a doctor helping women to become pregnant. At that time as well, someone she knew had secondary infertility as while she had one child she miscarried in her second pregnancy and never became pregnant again even though she tried for years. Even though she was a teenager at the time, Dr Pat said she knew how the situation impacted that woman’s life and those two things propelled her into the science stream.
While she topped President’s College in both of the years she was there, her grades were still not good enough for her to get into medical school immediately. She first had to complete a year of biology, which she said in retrospect was a blessing in disguise as it helped to prepare her for the five years in medical school.
“I had a very fun childhood. I hadn’t much but I didn’t know that back then because I was very, very happy. I grew up with my parents in a little house…and yeah, we didn’t have light for ten years. We didn’t have TV. And we had no water in the yard. However, all my basic needs were met. I had shelter. I had food and they clothed me. And I had love,” she said of her childhood.
Curtis and Shallon Douglas, according to Dr Pat, raised a champion daughter who still lives with them at the age of 30. This, she said, is because she is being financially savvy, and she will move when she has a home, and she can save for the future.
Her parents, she said, are very humble, and while they have to be proud of her they do not overtly display this. She shared that her parents invested in her as while she might not have had the fancy clothes and shoes (she was laughed at church because of the clothes she wore), she never had the need to beg for a textbook; this was always provided by her parents and she attended every lesson.
Her parents did not complete secondary school, but her father is a skilled man and he sat with her and helped her with long division.
“And my mother, even though she could not understand what is in my book, she would say ‘Pat what you did in school today? Let me see the book’ and she would box through it. That was support and I appreciated it…,” she said.
She described her parents as her “strength” and “rock” and while she loves her mother, her father has a special place in her heart, and she refers to him as “my boy”.
She added, “My father is so supportive. My father is my number one cheerleader. As big as I am, when I get home, my dad takes my shoes inside… maybe I am spoilt.”
Her father also ensures that her food is ready even though her mother tells him from to time that she is a big girl and could be married at her age.
She recalled that during her secondary school examinations, her dad woke her up early in the morning and stayed up with her. He “would make my Milo… and he would take the Trisco biscuits, butter it with nut butter and he would give it to me.
“Anything I want to do my father would support me. My mother would say you want to do everything. But my father would say ‘no leh she do it, she young. Make hay while the sun shines.’
“All respect and love to my father. I love my mother too, but daddy is the man.”
A member of the Golden Grove Seventh-Day Adventist church, Dr Pat said the church was also instrumental in her becoming the women she is today. Apart from the spiritual grounding, it also provided the platform for her to become a leader while the Pathfinder Club provided the needed discipline.
An African print enthusiast who loves headwraps, on any given day Dr Pat can be seen with an elegant headwrap and sometimes a matching outfit. She has been wrapping consistently since 2015 and for her it is more than a fashion statement; the headwrap makes her feel more confident and powerful and connects her to her roots.
“When I wear this [she points to her headwrap] I represent Africa… I normally say my roots are in Africa, my stems and branches are in Guyana and my fruits are international. I love my country, I am very patriotic,” she said.
The young doctor challenges young people to dream big and beyond their circumstances. She encourages them to write their plans down and take decisive steps to make them a reality. As a Christian she encourages them to pray as well and to make decisions not only for now, but that would benefit them in the future.
