From Cayman Islands Health Department

Just in time for this year’s regional celebration of wellness, the Child Health Task Force (CHTF), a private-public partnership, launched an initiative on Tuesday (September 11, 2012) to help schools develop and implement comprehensive health and wellness policies.

These policies will include standards for physical education, opportunities for physical activity during the school day, school meals, safety, nutrition promotion and education within the school. At present, government schools have a standard School Food Policy (“Cayman Islands Public Schools: Standards for Food Provisions”) and some private schools have implemented individual school nutrition policies. However, many schools either do not have a broader policy which promotes holistic health/wellbeing or it has not been formalized into an active, written document.

With this initiative, and to encourage all schools across the Cayman Islands to develop and implement policies based on their individual needs and goals, CHTF is offering a financial incentive to those who can produce a written health/wellness policy by December 2012 and demonstrate evidence of implementation by June 2013. Successful schools will take part in a prize-drawing. Schools will also receive technical support in the form of a toolkit that will help them to write both the policy and an implementation plan that can be later evaluated.

Supporting the programme, Minister of Health, Hon Mark Scotland, JP said, “Local wellness policies are an important tool for parents and schools in promoting student wellness, preventing and reducing childhood obesity, and providing assurance that school meal nutrition guidelines meet the minimum government school meal standards. Therefore, I am pleased that the Health Task Force has taken this step in ensuring this.”

This project follows an evolution in the theme of Caribbean Wellness Day (CWD) (September 8, 2012), and the Wellness Week activities that follow it (September 16-21, 2012). CWD aims to highlight national and community level activities to promote healthy living, and encourage individuals to develop healthier lifestyles.

From 2008-2011 under the theme “Love that Body” the annual observance focused on raising awareness of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, obesity and cancer, as well as getting countries involved.  In 2012, the focus will shift to addressing the threat of Chronic NCDs in children and adolescents, an issue that is a growing concern in the Cayman Islands.

Praising those schools that already have voluntary policies in place, developed by committed teams of staff, parents, and students, CHTF chair Dr. Diane Hislop states, “Our goal is that every school will take up this challenge for the 2012/2013 school year.  We believe that the substantial portion of each day which children and teens spend at school make it a priority setting in which to either establish a health promotion initiative, or scale-up existing  initiatives that address common risk factors for NCDs, such as: lack of physical activity, childhood obesity, poor diets, etc.

This initiative builds on previously implemented policies and programs such as the food-based nutrition standards which have been in place in all government schools since 2010. In addition the Extended Afterschool Program coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Department of Sports provides several hundred students with the opportunity to take part in physical activities five days per week with free transport if needed. This started in April 2011 in the government secondary schools and this year is also extending to include the government primary schools.

More than 50% boys and more than 60% of girls in the Cayman Islands spend 3 hours or more a day in sedentary activities (sitting and talking, watching TV, playing computer games, etc) according to the Global Youth Survey (2007). Conversely, only 20% of boys and just over 10% of girls are physically active for at least an hour per day.

In addition,  data from annual school health screenings conducted by the Public Health Department between 2006-2012, show that approximately 30% of children ages 3-6 years old are classified as overweight or obese (15.9% obese on average). Among children ages 10-13 years old, approximately 35.4% are classified as overweight or obese (20% obese, on average).

The Children’s Health Task Force programme was launched in 2009 in an attempt to deal with the dramatic rise in the number of school children who are either obese, or at risk of becoming obese. It is a task force of medical professionals, educators and dieticians / nutritionists. Current membership includes Dr. Diane Hislop (Chair), Dr. Sook Yin (Co-Chair), Dr. Shirley Cridland (Medical Director), Sue Rajah (Program Coordinator), Kristen Lomas, Bethany Smith, Simone Sheehan and Cherine Usherwood (Registered Dieticians). The group works closely with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, and the Public Health Department in the fight against childhood obesity.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government initiated Caribbean Wellness Day in September 2008, after signing the Port of Spain Declaration (2007), a commitment to stop the epidemic of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the region.