President of the National Youth Council of Dominica (NYCD) Phael Lander believes that prevention is the first defense in the fight against Non-Communicable Diseases (CNCDs). He was speaking during a post-budget discussion among the youth held at the UWI Open Campus on Thursday. Non-Communicable Diseases have been the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Dominica over the last ten years.
“Many young persons live their lives up until they get up to the age of 40 and that’s when they start thinking about CNCDs and start talking about whether or not this is something that I should focus on,” he said. “And I say that to mean that we as a nation need to target our approaches to healthcare as a holistic approach as opposed to stop focusing on, we are treating persons with hypertension…we are treating persons with diabetes.”
Lander continued, “If we recognize that prevention is the key it’s the first defense [against] CNCDs.”
In fact, he said starting the prevention mechanisms from the younger persons, “from our 16,17,18,19, 20-year-olds and preaching to them the preventative measures that can be implemented from those ages, I think in the long run and not only me, but the world has organizational support, that we will have a stronger and more formidable attack on CNCDs in the long run and will reduce our physical expenditure on healthcare as it pertains to CNCD prevention.”
Meanwhile, Lander referred to the increase in budgetary allocation for the youth in Dominica.
“I was happy to see the increase in budgetary allocation for the youth which is something that was in the 2021-2022 Budget,” he explained. “We saw budgetary allocation within the Ministry of Health an increase of–last year it was $59.3 million and this year we are seeing budgetary allocation of $73 million, so there has been an increase towards the Ministry of Health as well.”
Lander went on to state that there was somewhat of a significant increase to the Ministry of Youth, “however we noticed that the Ministry of Youth would have been separated from social services…”
He added, “We recognize there has also been some form of shift in portfolios.”
He indicated that the budget allocates a commendable increase in the funding for youth development programs, reflecting a commitment to nurturing the potential of young Dominicans and that they are enthused to see that.
“We the National Youth Council of Dominica are excited to continue to partner with the Youth Development Division and the other youth agencies across the island, specifically the Ministry of Youth,” Lander stated.
Gason you are blind and misleading like Skerrit your mentor. I don’t even listen to you
DNO what about some very concise excerpts from Melissa and the female parliamentarian who stated that Dominica is the only country, in the world, to be hit by a natural disaster.
The House of Parliament in Dominica has been reduced to a house of comic relief. Debates in the House, led by a most uncouth, disgusting, amateurish ignoramus, are a total disgrace and disservice to the entire country.