We carry out research that aims to understand the health needs of our community and the challenges that are faced when accessing health services. We also carry out projects that aim to improve the health and wellbeing of our community. You can view some of our work below.
Just Dance Crew: 3D Animation Physical Activity Project
The Just Dance Crew is our new innovative Public Health Tech project that uses 3D animation to promote exercise and physical activity in children. The animations aim to teach children to perform short dancercise (dance + exercise) routines. We’re using animation because research has shown that children engage more with animated characters and we’re focusing on dance because it is a fun way to get children active. Additionally, research shows that dance has a number of health benefits, it’s an excellent form of exercise, improves fitness, leads to weight loss, strengthens bones and muscles, is beneficial to mental health and improves social skills.
The routines will be 1-5 minutes long and will focus on cardiovascular exercise; muscle and bone strengthening; and flexibility and relaxation exercises. The routines can fit into both the school and home environment. At school, the videos can be used during devotional, at breaks and over lunchtime. While at home, children and parents can use the videos during their leisure time and this will be a good alternative to computer games and can get the whole family involved creating a fun, family experience.
You can find out more about this project here or you can download our PowerPoint summary here.
My Healthy Heroes Pilot
On 21st February 2020, we started a 6-week pilot of our My Healthy Heroes program with thirty-three fourth-graders from the Immaculate Conception Catholic School (ICCS) in St Kitts.
Our My Healthy Heroes program aims to educate and empower children to make healthy choices by tapping into their creativity to highlight the importance of a healthy lifestyle in a fun and engaging way.
This pilot project aimed to test our resources and characters (Healthy Heroes, Sugary Drinks Assassins and Junk Food Villains) and determine whether our approach would be effective at educating children about healthy eating and more importantly facilitate a change in their behaviour.
Although our project ended slightly early because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was very successful and demonstrated that with a little creativity, we can get children excited about healthy eating, to learn and retain important information about the harms of unhealthy eating, to reflect on their lifestyles, to attempt to change behaviour and to rethink their food choices.
You can read the project report here
The Joan Ajose-Adeogun Fund
On the 30th May, we hosted a virtual launch of the Joan Ajose-Adeogun fund which aims to support multiple myeloma patients and their families through support grants. At this particular time, it’s important that we support myeloma patients and their families as they deal with their cancer during this current pandemic.
Multiple myeloma is a devastating disease which results in patients experiencing unbearable pain, the suppression of their immune systems, the weakening of their bones, losing their speech, ability to walk, and brain function and many more effects.
Patients with multiple myeloma are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 due to their suppressed immune system and therefore must be more vigilant when it comes to preventative measures.
The fund will help patients and their families manage the impact that stay-at-home orders have had on their treatment, health and wellbeing, and it will support the general management of their disease.
Our initial target is to raise $10,000 and we aim to start issuing grants in September 2020.
You can find out more about this project and make a donation here
Fibroids Qualitative Research Study
In January 2020, we started our qualitative research study which aims to explore the experience of women residing in St Kitts and Nevis, who have been affected by fibroids.
The reason for trying to understand this experience is because it has become clear that fibroids are a common health issue affecting women in St Kitts and Nevis. It is therefore important to explore if fibroids are affecting the quality of life of women in the Federation and understand what challenges women may be facing so we can provide effective and appropriate support, advocate on behalf of women, and ensure that women receive the best medical care possible.
This research study was approved by the Ministry of Health’s Interim Ethics Review Committee on 12th December 2019 (ethics approval number IERC-2019-12-035) and we received a small grant from the team at Soca Girls Rock! to cover some of the costs of this work.
You can find out more about this project here
Chronic Disease Self-Management
We’re now certified facilitators of the Stanford University Chronic Disease Self-Management Course. This is an evidence-based prevention and health promotion program that addresses common issues faced by people with chronic conditions. The program has been implemented in 19 countries showing several benefits including:
- Improved wellbeing
- Improved health of participants
- Fewer hospitalisations
- Fewer days spent in hospital
Since 2019, we’ve been running a Chronic Disease Self-Management project where we offer free chronic disease self-management courses for anyone in St Kitts and Nevis who has a chronic disease, is at a high risk of developing a chronic disease or is caring for a friend or family member with a chronic illness. This is a very interactive course that runs for 6 weeks (one two-hour session per week for 6 weeks) in a community setting with 12-16 participants.
The topics covered during the six weeks include:
- Techniques to deal with problems such as frustration, fatigue, pain and isolation.
- Appropriate exercise for maintaining and improving strength, flexibility, and endurance
- Appropriate use of medications
- Communicating effectively with family, friends, and health professionals
- Nutrition
- Decision making
- How to evaluate new treatments
- Action planning
For more information about this project and to find out dates for the next course, please email us or visit our Chronic Disease Self-Management Blog.
Childhood Obesity in the Caribbean
The Healthy Caribbean Coalition launched its childhood obesity prevention campaign in March 2018. This campaign aimed to raise awareness of childhood obesity in the Caribbean and influence the region’s leaders to champion and implement critical policies that will improve the health of our children, reduce childhood obesity and prevent the associated non-communicable diseases.
As a member of the HCC we got involved in this campaign by exploring how we could raise awareness of these issues here in St Kitts. We joined the HCC’s civil society action team and recruited volunteers from the St Kitts Volunteer Corp and UMHS to gain support for the HCC’s childhood obesity prevention petition and to raise awareness of childhood obesity.
Our teenage volunteers from the Volunteer Corp worked on a childhood obesity podcast series which included four episodes that covered the causes and solutions. You can listen to these episodes here:
- Episode 1: Childhood Obesity, A Youth Perspective
- Episode 2: Childhood Obesity, A Youth Perspective on the Causes
- Episode 3: How We Stay Healthy
- Episode 4: Childhood Obesity, A Youth Perspective on the Solutions
One of our main targets for this campaign was to obtain 500 signatures from residents of St Kitts and Nevis for the childhood obesity prevention petition and, as of writing, our volunteers were able to secure over 400 signatures. The campaign came to an end in November 2018 but we are building on this work for our new childhood obesity prevention project.
To find out more about this campaign, please visit the official HCC campaign website here
Croydon Diabetes Community Champions
The Lake Foundation teamed up with Diabetes UK in early 2017 to deliver a Diabetes Community Champions project in Croydon aimed at the black community.
Diabetes affects 1 in 13 people in Croydon with over 19,000 affected and an additional 6400 people who don’t know they have it. Diabetics are three times more likely to develop renal failure, 2.5 times more likely to develop heart failure and twice as likely to develop stroke. Additionally, in Croydon, 38% of amputations are in diabetics and 14% of sight loss occurs in diabetics.
There are a number of high risk groups in Croydon including the black community who are three times more likely to develop diabetes than their white counterparts and hence there is a need to focus on this community.
Diabetes costs Croydon £123.7M per year, these costs are related to treatment, management of complications and wider societal costs such as informal care, social care and lost productivity.
Through out project we recruited and trained 17 diabetes community champions and they have been able to reach hundreds of people with the key messages about diabetes and its prevention. The Lake Foundation has now moved to the Caribbean and Diabetes UK is continuing with this work. A full report will be available in 2018 but you can read a short update here.