On 14^th November 2019, we were delighted to have been able to attend the Forum for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control which was hosted by the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund in partnership with the Ministry of Health in St Kitts and Nevis.

This event aimed to bring together both local and international organisations working in the field to share their experiences, present their work and thus provide a platform to learn, share best practices, promote regional collaboration and identify the best way forward in tackling chronic diseases in St Kitts and Nevis.

This was a very important event as chronic diseases are a major cause of death in St Kitts and Nevis – 83% of deaths in the Federation are due to chronic diseases. Therefore, the prevention and control of these conditions is a major priority for the Ministry of Health and the ICDF is working towards supporting the government to strengthen its non-communicable disease (NCD) strategy.

Over the three days of the forum, in attendance were representatives from CARPHA, the Ministries of Health of Belize, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Kitts and Nevis; the JNF Hospital in St Kitts; the St Kitts Diabetes Association, Community Health Centres in St Kitts and Nevis and the Taipei Veterans General Hospital.

We attended on the second day of this event. The theme for the day was: ‘Chronic Disease Management – Where to Go?’ This was an excellent and informative day featuring presentations from:

• Dr Bichara Sahely, Consultant Physician, Internal Medicine, JNF Hospital, St Kitts
• Dr Aljay Pierre, Medical Officer, Internal Medicine, JNF Hospital, St Kitts
• Dr Wei-Cheng Tseng, Taipei Veterans General Hospital
• Dr Hazel Laws, Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of Health, St Kitts
• Dr Marissa Carty, NCD Program Coordinator, Ministry of Health, St Kitts
• Mr Feng-Ta Tsai, Project Manager, Taiwan, ICDF

Together, the speakers provided an overview of the position around NCDs and made recommendations for what is required going forward if we are to effectively reduce the burden caused by NCDs. The take-home message of the day was the need for a greater focus on NCD prevention as most countries in the Caribbean will not be able to address NCDs with medical care alone.

The event ended with a very lively Q&A and panel discussion, giving the audience the opportunity to engage with the speakers and collectively explore solutions to addressing NCDs.

We very much enjoyed attending this event and found the presentations from Dr Sahely and Dr Pierre, particularly insightful. They both provided a very interesting perspective from doctors working on the frontline at the JNF Hospital to diagnose, treat and support patients.  They highlighted that there is much work to be done in the Federation and this will involve improvements and changes to the system to facilitate prevention, early diagnosis, better management of patients with NCDs and an improvement in the quality of care delivered.

We look forward to playing our own very small part in tackling NCDs and would like to thank the ICDF and Ministry of Health for organising this event.

We’re delighted to announce that our next set of chronic disease self-management courses will start in July 2019.

Following the success of our first chronic disease self-management course which ran from 2^nd April to 7^th May 2019, we will be hosting two more sets of workshops. The first will start on Tuesday 2^nd July and the second on Wednesday 3^rd July. Both workshops will be held at the conference room at the Ministry of Health in St Kitts from 5pm to 7pm.

The course is aimed at anyone living in St Kitts who is either living with a chronic health condition (like diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, fibroids, heart disease, arthritis, chronic back pain etc.), is caring for someone with a chronic illness, is at risk of developing a chronic health condition or who is interested in the topic and would like to learn more.

Participants will attend one session a week for 6 weeks and during this period they will be provided with the information, skills and knowledge to live well with their health condition. This will enable those affected by a chronic disease to take control of their health and wellbeing and not be hindered in any way by their condition.

Over the six weeks, attendees will be taken through key self-management techniques such as action planning, problem-solving, symptoms management, medication management, communication skills, pain management and more.  Additionally, attendees will have access to free health checks and relevant services to enable them to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

If you or anyone you know is living with a chronic disease or caring for someone with a chronic disease, then this workshop is just what you need.

You can register your interest by completing the registration form below and for more information or if you have a question about this course, please email us or call 765 8702.

Please note: The information you provide in the form above will only be used to contact you about our chronic disease self-management course. It will not be passed on to any third party and you won’t be added to our newsletter’s mailing list. To be added to our mailing list, please click here.

On 25th April,  the pharmaceutical company Merck launched their new documentary, A Touch of Sugar, at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The documentary is narrated by the award-winning actress Viola Davis who has a strong family history of type 2 diabetes and who herself is pre-diabetic.

The World Health Organisation has reported that in 2014, 422 million people worldwide were living with diabetes. The majority of these patients, about 90%,  are living with type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is now considered by many to be an epidemic and the film, A Touch of Sugar, delves into this chronic condition by telling the story of the many people who have been affected. The film features interviews with patients, family members, doctors, advocates and thought leaders to raise awareness of diabetes, its impact on society and the importance of focusing on underserved communities.

You can watch the trailer for the documentary below:

A Touch of Sugar Trailer from A Touch of Sugar on Vimeo.

A Touch of Sugar is part of Merck’s program,  ‘America’s Diabetes Challenge: Get to Your Goals’ which encourages type 2 diabetics to work with their doctors to reach a number of health goals.

You can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by maintaining a healthy weight, eating a healthy diet and taking part in at least 150 minutes of physical activity every week. If you have diabetes, speak to your doctor about the lifestyle changes that you can make to ensure that you’re managing your condition effectively.

In St Kitts and Nevis, diabetes is also a major health challenge, you can read about this here

We have started facilitating regular chronic disease self-management courses. These courses have been developed by Stanford University and have been proven to help those living with chronic conditions such as diabetes live well despite their condition.

If you live in St Kitts and Nevis and would like to learn more about managing chronic diseases, you can register to attend our next chronic disease self-management course, by sending us an email.

 

Welcome to part two of our ‘Discussions on Managing Conflict of Interest’ blog. In part one we provided some background to conflict of interest (CoI) and the challenges faced by those aiming to tackle NCDs in the Caribbean. Here, in part two, we’ll be providing highlights from the Health Caribbean Coalition’s (HCC) conflict of interest meeting which we attended a couple of weeks ago.

The HCC’s Meeting

The HCC’s CoI meeting was a two-day regional event held on 26^th and 27^th March 2019 that had a focus on conflict of interest in the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the Caribbean, and the overall aim of the meeting was to begin to build regional capacity to identify and manage conflict of interest.

Regional Experiences of Conflict of Interest

The meeting started with an interesting and insightful look at regional experiences of CoI from both civil society and the public sector. From civil society, we heard from the Heart Foundation of Jamaica, the HCC and the Trinidad and Tobago Heart Foundation, and from the public sector, we heard from representatives from the Ministries of Health in Antigua, the Bahamas and Jamaica.  Collectively they touched on industry interference and conflict of interest. Some interesting points that were raised included:

• In the Caribbean, in most instances, we have to live with CoI and so approaching this area from the point of view of managing CoI is a more practical and realistic approach
• The difficulty of dealing with the “smallness” of the Caribbean – everyone knows each other and in our professional lives, in tackling NCDs, we may have to fight against people we know and respect
• Absolutes are unlikely to work except with the tobacco industry where globally the public health community does not partner with tobacco companies. For other industries, like the food and beverage industry, we must explore degrees of conflict of interest (low, medium and high) and degrees of partnership or engagement. Not every engagement will be detrimental to public health and we must understand how to manage conflict of interest whilst getting the most benefit out of any relationship or partnership
• What happens after a conflict of interest has been identified? What is the process for review? Is it an actual, potential or perceived CoI? What is the process for recusal?
• Should an organisation’s CoI policy be generic or specific?
• Some good practice with respect to disclosure forms:
  • All CoI policies should have a supporting disclosure form
  • Disclosure forms are valid for a year
  • The obligation is on the person who is disclosing to report any changes within that year
  • Have a process for checking the accuracy of a completed disclosure form
• Managing conflicts of interest – ensure that if you’re going into a partnership with industry that a lawyer reviews the MoU and any non-disclosure agreements to prevent any CoI issues; don’t be afraid to negotiate so you can minimise any risks or exposures.

WHO/PAHO Tool for Preventing and Managing CoI In Nutrition

A core part of the HCC’s meeting was to explore the tools and support that could be offered to organisations to identify and manage conflict of interest in order to build regional capacity. Therefore, during the meeting, attendees were introduced to WHO’s draft tool for preventing and managing CoI, including an abbreviated ‘scoping’ version of this tool developed by PAHO,  and a draft of the HCC’s CoI guide and policy.

The PAHO scoping tool provides a simple method to evaluate potential engagements and is divided into three areas that enable organisations to reflect on important issues before deciding on whether to enter into an engagement with an external entity.  These areas include:

• Actor alignment
• Engagement profile
• Assessing the risk and benefits

Additionally,  this scoping tool complements the more comprehensive decision-making tree developed as part of the WHO draft tool. This is a 6-step process that takes the user through a structured process for analysing a potential engagement to identify and manage conflict of interest. The steps include:

• Exploring the rationale for engagement
• Profiling, due diligence and risk assessment of the external actor and the potential engagement
• Balancing risks and benefits
• Risk management
• Monitoring, evaluation and accountability
• Transparency and communication

Both resources provide users with an objective and comprehensive method of identifying and assessing conflict of interest, whether an engagement should be pursued and if so, what measures can be introduced to manage any conflicts of interest.

The HCC’s CoI Guide and Policy

Finally, the HCC presented their draft CoI guide and policy which is aimed at their staff, volunteers, board members, advisors, interns and consultants. Their policy and guide aims to prevent, identify, avoid and manage CoI. It also aims to serve as a general guide for civil society organisations and individuals as they develop their own CoI policies, the idea being that CSOs can simply adapt the HCC policy to suit local needs and situations.

Our Thoughts

We thought this was an excellent meeting which gave us a lot of food for thought.

Conflict of interest is an area that we considered on a simple level, but this meeting allowed us to explore this subject in depth and fully appreciate the risks of not properly analysing the relationships that we seek to enter.

The meeting was very timely as over the past few months we’ve started to explore organisations that we can approach to support some of our activities and during this process, we have found it challenging to determine whether we should pursue forming relationships with an organisation that promotes both healthy and unhealthy food and beverages. Attending this meeting has given us some clarity and by using the knowledge we have gained from this meeting and the PAHO tool we believe we can make a better decision.

Conclusion

We encourage Caribbean civil society organisations working in the NCD field to explore developing an approach to tackling conflict of interest to safeguard the credibility and integrity of their work, and for further information, please do reach out to the Healthy Caribbean Coalition

On 26^th and 27^th March 2019, we joined representatives from across the Caribbean in attending the Healthy Caribbean Coalition’s workshop on conflict of interest (CoI). This event had a special focus on conflict of interest in non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control in the Caribbean.

This is going to be a two-part blog and in today’s piece we’re going to provide some background to conflict of interest and in part two we’ll provide some highlights from the HCC’s CoI meeting.

What is Conflict of Interest?

The World Health Organisation describes conflict of interest as:

“…circumstances where there is potential for a secondary interest to unduly influence, or where it may be reasonably perceived to unduly influence, either the independence or objectivity of professional judgement or actions regarding a primary interest.”

They also explain that:

“The existence of conflict of interest in all its forms does not as such mean that improper action has occurred, but rather the risk of such improper action occurring. Conflicts of interest are not only financial but can take other forms as well.”

Another definition of CoI comes from Public Health and Food and Beverage Industry Engagement: A Tool to Guide Partnership Opportunities and Challenges. They define CoI as:

“… where one engages in any private, personal or business undertaking or other activity in which one’s private or personal interest conflicts with one’s duties or responsibilities…”

For further clarity around the concept of CoI further explanations have been offered which categorise CoI into perceived, potential and actual and these are defined as follows:

• An actual conflict of interest occurs when there is a direct conflict between a person’s professional duties within an organisation and a competing interest or obligation, whether personal or involving a third-party.
• A potential conflict of interest arises where a person has an interest or obligation, whether personal or involving a third-party, that could conflict with their professional duties and responsibilities in the future.
• A perceived conflict of interest occurs where it could reasonably be perceived, or give the appearance, that a competing interest could improperly influence a person’s professional duties.

Additionally, CoI may be seen at the individual, institutional and structural levels.

By understanding and reflecting on these definitions we can recognise if we, or our organisation, may be conflicted. This will allow us to take steps to address this to ensure we are serving our primary interest – this is the one we committed to serve at the outset of our professional journey (in our case, improving the public’s health).

Conflict of Interest, the Caribbean and NCDs

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like the Caribbean are presented with a unique set of circumstances which make the area of conflict of interest particularly challenging. The circumstances in question relate to the very small populations creating an unavoidable, overlapping, intertwined social and business environment. This means that individuals and organisations may have multiple competing interests.  Therefore, staff working in organisations aiming to prevent and control NCDs may, at some point, find themselves in a number of difficult situations when it comes to CoI. This may include:

• Having a family member, friend or close associate working in an industry that produces products that are risk factors for NCDs
• Being offered funding, sponsorship or resources from companies that produce unhealthy products in a landscape where there are very limited funding and sponsorship opportunities
• Exploring a partnership with a company that produces both healthy and unhealthy products
• Being invited to take part in health campaigns by companies who produce products that are risk factors for NCDs (with there being no other companies to partner with to reach such a large audience)
• Developing NCD prevention and control policies with individuals and entities who have competing interests

In larger countries there are multiple options when there is a need to partner with individuals and organisations to  implement projects to prevent and control NCDs so many of the above situations can be avoided. Therefore, their approach to conflict of interest centres on prevention.

In Small Island Developing States, many of these conflicting situations cannot be avoided so not-for-profit entities (as well as government departments) have to start to re-think their approach to conflict of interest, focusing on strategies to effectively manage conflict of interest.

The HCC’s Conflict of Interest Meeting

Historically, conflict of interest, in many cases, has been addressed with a global blanket approach that doesn’t delve into the complex, overlapping business and personal relationships as well as the challenging funding environment that exists in the Caribbean. A more bespoke approach is needed for the Caribbean and hence the HCC’s conflict of interest meeting brought organisations together for in-depth discussions on this issue. Time was also set aside to explore solutions through the review and testing of a new conflict of interest tool being developed by WHO/PAHO as well as the review of a conflict of interest policy and guide being developed by the HCC. This meeting was very informative and we were delighted to have attended.

Coming Up Next Time

In part two of this blog we’ll summarise the highlights from the meeting, but in the meantime, for further information on conflict of interest you can explore the documents in our reference list below. We also encourage anyone working in public health in a Small Island Developing State to develop an approach to managing CoI to ensure the  credibility and integrity of their organisation remains intact.

References

1. The Healthy People and Communities Steering Committee’s Multi-Sectoral Partnerships Task Group, 2014. Public Health and Food and Beverage Industry Engagement A Tool to Guide Partnership Opportunities and Challenges, Ontario, Canada: The Healthy People and Communities Steering Committee’s Multi-Sectoral Partnerships Task Group, May 2014.
2. University of Southern Queensland. Conflicts of Interest. [Online]. Available at <https://www.usq.edu.au/hr/empcond/conflicts> [Accessed on 3^rd April 2019]
3. WHO, 2016. Framework of Engagement With Non-State Actors. [Meeting Proceedings] 28^th May 2016. Sixty-Ninth World Health Assembly.
4. WHO, 2015. Addressing and managing conflicts of interest in the planning and delivery of nutrition programmes at country level. Report of a technical consultation convened in Geneva, Switzerland, on 8–9 October 2015.

Being a new organisation in St Kitts and Nevis and keen to make a positive contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of our community, over the past year we have been exploring the public health landscape in our Federation and started developing a strategy around the pressing issue of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) with a focus on childhood obesity and women’s health.

In today’s blog, we’ll be discussing our decision to tackle women’s health and in a future blog, we’ll explore childhood obesity.

Our decision to focus on women’s health was an evidence-based decision. Data from the Ministry of Health has demonstrated that women living in the Federation face a number of health challenges.  In St Kitts and Nevis, women are disproportionately affected by some NCDs. For example, 71% of diabetics in St Kitts and Nevis are women and 65% of cancer patients are women.

Non-communicable diseases are a significant issue for St Kitts and Nevis with 83% of deaths being due to these conditions. Driving the rise of non-communicable diseases is the high rate of overweight and obesity. In women, the rates are extremely high. Data has shown that 74% of females in St Kitts and Nevis are either overweight or obese.

We need to tackle these issues in order to improve the health and quality of life of women and prevent them from dying prematurely from diseases that are mostly preventable. Therefore, we are working towards developing a women’s health programme that will initially focus on awareness and education.

Our Plan

Over the next year, our plan is to host a series of women’s health events entitled ‘Girl Talk: Informative, Informal and Empowering Discussions About Women’s Health.’

These events will aim to inform and empower women enabling them to take control of their health and therefore not only improve their own health and wellbeing, but the health and wellbeing of their families, and by extension build a stronger, healthier nation.

The series began on 30^th March 2019 with Girl Talk: Fibroids and following this there will be regular events covering a range of women’s health issues.

Healthcare professionals, particularly female healthcare professionals, will be invited to give engaging presentations on health topics, and women affected by conditions will be invited to share their experience and what they have learnt from it.

Additionally, we will invite health and wellbeing brands (particularly those owned by women) to showcase their services at each event so that women can have easy access to relevant services. We will also invite female medical students to take part in this event giving them relevant real-world experience of women’s health. We are pleased to have formed a partnership with Because We Care at the University of Medicine and Health Sciences to achieve this.

As well as covering the most common NCDs, we need to focus on providing support and information for women in St Kitts who are affected by women’s health issues that tend to be overlooked such as fibroids, endometriosis and PCOS.

Additionally, childhood obesity is another significant challenge with 1 in 3 children in the Caribbean being overweight or obese. In St Kitts, the statistics are more alarming with 46.9% of secondary school children being overweight or obese. Studies have shown that children who are overweight and obese tend to become adults who are overweight or obese, and this puts them at risk of developing NCDs like diabetes, cancer, heart disease and more.  We believe that women can play an instrumental role in tackling childhood obesity by creating a healthy environment for their children, our lecture series will educate mothers on easy, practical ways to do this.

The key objectives of our women’s health event series will be:

1. To raise awareness of and create an understanding of women’s health issues to facilitate early detection and prevention
2. To provide a safe, informal platform where women can come together, receive expert advice and have an honest open discussion about important health issues and therefore reduce isolation, stigma and create a support network for women.
3. To empower women with the information to create a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their families to improve their general health and wellbeing

As mentioned previously our first Girl Talk event was on 30^th March 2019 and we were so pleased with how it went. Look out for a future blog post summarising this event.

We are really excited about our strategy for the next couple of years and hope you’ll follow us on our journey.

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References

1. UNICEF, Situation Analysis of Children in the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis, UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area and the Government of St Kitts and Nevis, Christ Church, Barbados, 2017
2. PAHO, Health in the Americas, 2012: St Kitts and Nevis, PAHO, 2012
3.  WHO, Diabetes Country Profile: St Kitts and Nevis, WHO, 2016

We are absolutely delighted to have been invited to become a member of the St Kitts and Nevis Bureau of Standards Technical Committee for Labelling.

The St Kitts and Nevis Bureau of Standards has the responsibility of protecting the environment, health and safety of consumers. They focus on preparing, promoting and adopting standards on a national, regional and international basis with respect to the structures, commodities, materials, articles and other products and services offered to the public commercially. Through their work they promote standardization and quality assurance in industry and commerce.

One of the areas that the Bureau focuses on is ensuring the proper labelling of pre-packaged food items. Currently, the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality is updating the regional standard for the labelling of pre-packaged foods. The updated standard includes the introduction of front-of-pack labelling .

Front-of-pack (FOP) labels are just one of several strategies being used worldwide to tackle obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This type of labelling aims to provide the public with a quick way to assess the health of the foods they purchase and consume, making it easier to identify which foods are high in salt, saturated fat and sugar. It is also hoped that manufacturers will take notice of the labelling of their products and be encouraged to reformulate their products and reduce the amount of salt, sugar and saturated fat in them.

As part of our role in the SKNBS Technical Committee for Labelling we will be providing input on the need for FOP labels as a useful tool for the public to make healthier choices and for the government to tackle NCDs, a significant challenge in St Kitts and Nevis causing 83% of the islands’ deaths.

Last month we attended our first meeting of this committee and were delighted to have had the opportunity to have a productive discussion on FOP labels.

We’d like to thank the committee for inviting us to be a member of this group and are very much looking forward to making a positive contribution going forward.

The World Cancer Research Fund recently published a very informative and useful report on the lessons learnt globally from implementing front-of-pack (FOP) labels.

This report is the second report in their Building Momentum series and aims to provide policymakers with evidence-based advice on the design and implementation of FOP labelling.

FOP nutrition labelling is just one of several strategies being used worldwide to tackle obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This type of labelling aims to provide the public with a quick way to assess the health of the foods they purchase and consume, making it easier to identify which foods are high in salt, saturated fat and sugar. It is also hoped that manufacturers will take notice of the labelling of their products and be encouraged to reformulate their products and reduce the amount of salt, sugar and saturated fat in them.

Currently many countries are exploring the introduction of FOP labels so the WCRF’s report is very timely. It covers the following areas:

• Why FOP labels are important in tackling NCDs
• A summary of the research on the effectiveness of FOP labels
• The history of FOP labels and current status of FOP labels globally
• The different types of front-of-pack labels
• Developing a clear strategy for FOP labels that considers the following
  • The local context
  • Ensuring strategies are based on evidence
  • Having clear aims and objectives
  •  Carefully design of labels
  •  Good stakeholder engagement
  • Monitoring and evaluation are included at the early planning stage-
• Defending FOP labelling

The report includes case studies from countries who have already implemented front-of-pack labelling providing very useful real-word examples of the challenges involved in introducing FOP labelling and how to overcome them.

With the Caribbean currently exploring the introduction of FOP labelling we believe this report is a must-read for policymakers throughout the region.

The report can be downloaded below and for more information on the WCRF please visit their website here

World Cancer Day is on 4^th February and it  gives the world the opportunity to come together to raise awareness and campaign on key issues to improve the care, support and treatment given to patients.

Organisers, the UICC,  announced that the theme for World Cancer Day is #IAmAndIWill and this theme highlights that fact that whoever you are, you have the power to reduce the impact of cancer for yourself, the people you love and for the world.

The campaign therefore encourages everyone to make a commitment by using the hashtag and sharing who you are and what you will commit to in order to tackle cancer.

Our #IamAndIWill Commitment for 2019-2021

Our World Cancer Day commitment is to focus on children and raise awareness of the fact that overweight or obese children are more likely to become overweight or obese adults, and being overweight as an adult increases a person’s risk of developing cancer. In  fact, the World Cancer Research Fund has found that being overweight or obese throughout adulthood is linked to an increased risk of developing 12 types of cancer.

Our campaign appeals to parents to reduce their children’s future cancer risk by ensuring they’re a healthy weight now, and this can be achieved by ensuring that children:

• Are physically active and take part in 60 minutes of physical activity every day
• Eat a healthy diet

Childhood obesity is a significant challenge here in St Kitts and Nevis. A PAHO report revealed that 33% of secondary school children in the twin island state were overweight and 14% were obese. More recently, in 2017, a UNICEF report stated that 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis are obese.  We have to tackle childhood obesity to improve the health of our children to ensure they become happy, healthy adults.

We believe that by beating childhood obesity we can also contribute to beating cancer, and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

“I am Lake Health and Wellbeing and I will make an impact by spreading the word

about childhood obesity increasing a child’s future cancer risk” – #IamAndIWill

 

What We’re Doing Beyond World Cancer Day

Our work doesn’t stop after World Cancer Day, we’re working to beat childhood obesity all year round through our new childhood obesity prevention project. 

We’re currently working on developing innovative resources to get children active so they can easily get to and maintain a healthy weight.

How You Can Get Involved

You can get involved by raising awareness on social media and sharing your thoughts on this issue. You can use any of the images below or the short video clips below.

                                                               

                                                               

Also, we’d love it if you could support us by making a donation, which will go towards our childhood obesity prevention project.

You can make a donation below:

[asp_product id=”5804″]

Thank you for any support you’re able to provide and we hope you’ll join us for World Cancer Day to #BeatChildhoodObesity and #BeatCancer

References

1. UNICEF, Situation Analysis of Children in the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis, UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area and the Government of St Kitts and Nevis, Christ Church, Barbados, 2017
2. PAHO, Health in the Americas, 2012: St Kitts and Nevis, PAHO, 2012
3.  World Cancer Research Fund, Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer: A Global Perspective,  World Cancer Research Fund International, London, UK, 2018.

In October, we started a new consultancy project with our client being the FIT Wellness Centre in Nevis. This piece of work has involved us assisting the FIT Wellness Centre in developing their non-communicable disease (NCD) action plan and with the implementation of their National Weight Loss Campaign, a key part of their action plan.

In November, we took part in a press conference to discuss FIT’s NCD Prevention Action Plan and the National Weight Loss Campaign and were delighted to be featured on the NNC News.

We’re really happy to share the news clip with you. You can check it out below.

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If you’re based in Nevis and would like to take part in the National Weight Loss Campaign, please email us and if you’re creative and would like the chance to win $500EC, then you can enter the slogan competition for the campaign. You can find out more here.