Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 13, 2010 News
The public health sector is mandated to deliver proper health care to all citizens and even overseas visitors.
Thus, there should be no evidence of discrimination on the part of any level of worker employed within the sector, said Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, yesterday when he delivered remarks at the opening of a training workshop, at the Ocean View International Hotel.
The forum is intended to help guide the efforts of health care providers to deliver optimal care to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people.
The workshop saw the attendance of various levels of workers attached to Youth Friendly Services facilities in Regions One, Three, Four, Six, Seven, Eight and Ten.
Over the next three days they will be exposed to the content of a manual that was created to guide their daily performance as it relates to their respective interaction with clients.
Addressing the participants, Minister Ramsammy underscored that “we in the health sector take care of everyone…This is nothing new.
As you consider this manual and as you expand your skills on how to deal with a specific group of people…know that we are in no way expanding our service because we have to take care of everyone regardless of what their lifestyle or status might be.”
Head of the Adolescent Health Unit within the Ministry, Dr Marcia Paltoo, said that the training with the aid of the manual represents the culmination of a process that has been the outcome of years of development, field testing and training.
The manual was created with the expert input of Mr Dereck Springer who facilitated the proceedings yesterday.
According to Dr Paltoo the workshop is geared at ensuring that equitable service is provided to all persons in spite of their sexual orientation.
And this is crucial, she said, since studies conducted in Guyana such as the Biological Behavioural Surveillance Survey (BBSS) have highlighted that the HIV prevalence rate has been decreasing over the years in the general population but remains high among some of the most at-risk groups.
Some of the groups she listed as men who have sex with men and commercial sex workers. And often is the case that those who are affected fall within the age range of 15 and 44, Dr Paltoo noted even as she added that the training comes at a very opportune time to help address the way health care is delivered to them.
And in order to ensure that optimal care is made available Mr Springer said that the urgent need for the creation of a manual was recognised. This, he said, required some amount of research. As a result, a literature review was conducted; it examined information available internationally in order to bring about a better understanding of the issues around sexual orientation as well as the issues around health care needs and concerns of this particular group.
Following the literature review a number of focus groups were conducted with lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered persons, Mr Springer said.
And support in this regard was especially forthcoming from the Society Against Sexual Orientation and Discrimination (SASOD) and the Guyana Rainbow Association, both of which were instrumental in helping to identify the target group.
“The focus groups allowed us to really validate the themes that were emerging from the literature review as well as to identify what were the health care concerns as well as the health care needs of persons within this specific group.”
The information, according to Springer, was then used to complete the development of the manual after which field testing was initiated by health care workers in Georgetown, New Amsterdam, Kamarang and Mahdia.
“We wanted as much as possible to engage health care providers in as many regions as we could. They were able to provide us with incites in terms of how we could make the manual even more user friendly and their feedback and input was used to finalise the manual.”
Finalisation of the manual was completed last year and a decision was taken that the first batch of health workers to be trained should be those attached to Youth Friendly Services.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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