Personal Support Worker Program gets underway in Kalinago Territory

Seventeen excited students started their journey with the Personal Support Worker Program which got underway on Wednesday in the Kalinago Territory.

The goal of the program is to empower those who decided to participated and will focus on caring for members of the vulnerable population.

Delivering motivational words at the orientation ceremony for the program were the Kalinago Chief Charles Williams, Director of the Dominica National Infirmary, Annie St. Luce, Project development officer from the Ministry of Kalinago Affairs Cozier Frederick and Missionaries from the US representing the church of Jesus Christ latter Saints.

St. Luce said she was delighted with the program, saying it was timely and that she will do her best to ensure that the students doing their internship at the Dominica National Infirmary get the necessary exposure and experience needed to provide the best care for older persons.

Cozier Frederick stated that this moment marks history for the Kalinago Territory as this is the first program of its kind in Dominica and first program in the Kalinago Territory that will help address the escalating problem of increase in a number of older persons and vulnerable populations living in Dominica right now with chronic non-communicable diseases.

Chief Williams gave his full support and believes that this is one of the best programs that anyone from the Territory has ever implemented.

Nurse Annette Thomas- Sanford, Co-ordinator of the program, reminded the students that five months of hard work and classroom training and one-month internship at the long-term care facilities, namely the Dominica National Infirmary and the Agape Nursing home in Massacre, lay ahead.

She explained that students will be required to get no less than 80 percent in all assignments and examinations. They are also required to get 80 percent of lab skills completed before they can graduate.

Thomas-Sanford encouraged the participants not to be afraid as her team of facilitators will work with them to ensure that they get the best training and help along the way.

She is very happy that the young women in the Territory are enthused about the program and believe that after graduation they will be trained in a much-needed field: The Personal Support Worker Program. She saw this training as a step to self-reliance for the Kalinago women and a means of minimizing poverty in the Territory. She pointed out that the program addresses major international health concerns that the World Health Organization is now placing great emphasis on the increase in life expectancy and an increase in chronic diseases.

Students were introduced to their course curriculum, module co-ordinators and at the end enjoyed a buffet of indigenous delicacies made by Rosemond Burton and served by the Karina Cultural Group.