In preparation for the new school term in September, the Ministry of Health, backed by New York’s Mount Sinai Health Systems and Hess Corporation, will soon be launching a Comprehensive Child and Youth Health Programme.
This programme, which was announced in August of last year by Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony, is set to roll out in a few weeks and will facilitate the screening of children in schools across Guyana.
At the time of the announcement, Anthony had noted that the screening will be done at various intervals during a child’s school life, to ensure a clean bill of health.
“We have a package of services that we are developing where we want to screen this child and that would include making sure that they get an eye test, making sure that they get an oral examination to see if they have a bad tooth, check their hearing and some other basic things”, he had said.
Chair of the Department of Health System Design and Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health, Dr. Rachel Vreeman, noted that with the health screening it can be assured that every child in Guyana has the best chance at growing and learning to the very best of their capabilities.
“The reason why this is so important is that it really sets them up to learn as well as possible. If a child is having problems seeing, they may not be able to read or participate as fully as they might be able to otherwise. If they’re having trouble with their hearing, their speech and their social skills might be delayed,” the doctor explained in a video on the Ministry of Health’s Facebook page.
She added that even problems with baby teeth in the mouth can get in the way of children learning and participating at full capacity at school. This could further affect their nutrition and their growth, she noted.
The Minister of Health was also of the same mind as Vreeman concerning the health of the nation’s children.
“If we detect children with these kinds of challenges, we will be able to fix it. Sometimes children are in the classroom and they are not learning properly because they have some form of disability, whether hearing, not seeing well, and so forth and once these things are corrected and corrected early, we can prevent a lot of learning loss,” he had said.
On this note, both Vreeman and Anthony recommend that comprehensive screening, through the programme be done for children from Nursery through Secondary School. This newspaper understands that once the programme is launched, screening will first be rolled out at the nursery level first then to the primary and secondary levels. The facilitators are urging parents to get onboard with the programme so that their child can have a chance at performing to the best of their abilities in school, unhindered by health issues.
“We hope that you would be eager for them to get this health screening. We want to connect you with whatever it is that will help your child to grow and learn and be the [most healthy] child they possibly can be. And I really believe that this is an opportunity for Guyana’s children to reach their maximum potential,” Vreeman urged.
Mother to a six-year-old son, Vreeman also noted her intent to recommend that as he prepares to return to school he would have the exact screening that is being put in place for children in Guyana.
