Tackling Health & Wellness In Eleuthera

Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of American President Lyndon B. Johnson (right), addressing the roundtable participants.

Visitors, Donors and Local Stakeholders Convene Round Table Discussions

(Palmetto Point) - On the morning of Friday, January 20, The Cancer Society of the Bahamas, Eleuthera Branch, hosted a Health and Wellness Roundtable, where stakeholders from Central and South Eleuthera, as well as visiting nursing universities and colleges and potential donors were all gathered to discuss a strategic plan for health and wellness on the island of Eleuthera.

Luci Baines Johnson, a Windermere Island homeowner and advocate for health and wellness, along with Allison Derek, Treasurer of the Cotton Bay Foundation, were guests of the Roundtable discussion.  They were joined by presenters at the Roundtable, including, Cancer Society (CSE) president, Juanita Pinder; CSE advisor and One Eleuthera director, Shaun Ingraham; Nurse Sherrin Cooper, Chief nursing officer; Nurse Regina Ingraham, School nursing; Nurse Bianca Edwards, Diabetes; Leslie Lightfoot, Veterans Homestead hospice care; Dr. Janet Peterson, Lindfield College; Dr. Tami Thomas, Emory University; Dr. Amy Dorril, Emory University; Dr. Sabrina Mikan, Texas Oncology (moderator) and other participants.

Nurse Bianca Edwards was one of the presenters who addressed the grouping of visitors, potential donors and local stakeholders gathered at the Eleuthera Branch of the Cancer Society to discuss a strategic plan for health and wellness on the island of Eleuthera.

Nurses Cooper, Ingraham and Edwards began the Roundtable with individual presentations on the nursing program in Eleuthera and the current health status, challenges and successes in school nursing and health competitions designed to combat non-communicable diseases, like diabetes and heart disease.  These were followed by presentations from visiting university and college personnel, highlighting the programs they have ongoing in Eleuthera in co-operation with the Bahamian government, then a wrap up presentation from Cancer Society president Juanita Pinder outlining the activities of the Society on Eleuthera.

Nurse Sherrin Cooper gave an overview of the current state of health and wellness on the island of Eleuthera

Moderator of the morning’s discussion, Dr. Sabrina Mikan, provided a summary of the key goals and planned actions decided on as a result of the gathering.

1.    To create a clearinghouse for assembling, maintaining and distributing information about health, health activities and research opportunities in Eleuthera. This will first take shape in the form of an online forum for communication. The Health Consortium of Eleuthera. (under One Eleuthera.org)
2.    The group agreed on the Government Healthy Lifestyles Initiative and discussed future implementation and data collection.
3.    To work together with the local health care teams to identify gaps and needs for healthy living, including editorials, research articles and global health conferences.
4.    To work together with the local health care teams to highlight successes of healthy living activities in public forums, including editorials, research articles and global health conferences.
5.    To support future grant writing for international research and projects. This included discussion of a central person to coordinate the Health Consortium.
6.    Discussed possibility of a Health Symposium in the summer of 2012.
7.    Joint calendar coordination for future activities of health competitions: 2 for adults and 2 for children and teens for the 2012 year.
8.    Agreed to hold an additional meeting later in the Spring.