Dominican teachers are being encouraged to not only survive but to thrive as far as their health is concerned.
This was according to Health Promotion Coordinator in the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Social Services, Mignon Rolle-Shillingford who was delivering remarks during the Dominica Association of Teachers (DAT) 22nd National General Meeting held at the St Alphonsus Parish Hall this week, under the theme: “Health and Wellness-Make Yourself a Priority.”
“Wellness is associated with intentions and choices leading towards an optimal state of well-being, so that instead of surviving we are thriving,” she said. “So it’s not just about surviving. You need to thrive, so we shouldn’t stay at that one state only.”
Rolle-Shillingford continued, “It is commonly viewed as having seven dimensions, and that includes your mental, physical, social, financial, spiritual, environmental, and vocational.”
She added, “Now I trust that you are here with an open mind, and when we talk about health and wellness a lot of people concentrate on things like physical activity, eating properly and often forget the mental aspect, the vocational aspect where these things can affect us so severely that it prevents us from eating properly, from engaging in physical activity. Because our mind must be sound, we have to be happy.”
“And that is in connection with your daily life,” she noted… we talk about diabetes, the cardiovascular diseases which have to do with the heart, like hypertension and stroke, we talk about ‘the big C’, Cancer, we talk about mental health and we talk about respiratory diseases.”
Furthermore, she told teachers that their mental wellness influences how they think, feel, behave, and act.
“It also affects each dimension including coping with difficult times.”
To that end, Rolle-Shillingford touched on a growing trend her department has noticed lately, namely “where persons are not coping properly and using substances to cope.”
She also noted that in the past years, people who are considered to be healthy eaters are showing up with certain conditions and a lot of it is through deficiencies, “because they have removed parts of the food groups in their diet.”
“We are talking about eating a balanced diet,” she explained. “And when we talk about a balanced diet we are talking about eating from all of the food groups.”
Mignon, sometimes it is better for a person to remain silent: take a lock, than to make comments which are not helpful, or are actually insignificant, as in your following words as quoted:
“She also noted that in the past years, people who are considered to be healthy eaters are showing up with certain conditions and a lot of it is through deficiencies, “because they have removed parts of the food groups in their diet.”
To me whereas you may believe that is a statement of truth, it not because there is nothing scientific to substantiate that.
There are lots of different contributing factors to the deteriorating of human health, the different food we eat are not the major contributing factors.
First of all eliminating certain food from a diet may not be a factor, so much as their social and economic environment, such factors influence health. In fact, a persons education and income are the greatest predictors of their health.
Con:
Deteriorating health can also be caused by risk behaviors which includes physical activity, poor nutrition,tobacco products and use, along with excessive alcohol consumption are considered, and are known contributors in some way to illnesses, and death from chronic disease.
Factors may include poverty, and old age, mental ill-health, or a physical or learning disability. No need to remind you that the poverty in which people exists in Dominica is indeed a major contributing factor to deteriorating health!
Lack of medical attention in the early stages of an injury or some illness is also a major contributing factor!
At least any food in Dominica remove from their diet might serve as a plus; preventing the amount of starch people consume which are not good for the body anyway; so, to blame deteriorating health on stop eating certain food is total nonsense!