MOH News Letter - pulse - May 2015 - Republic of Palau Ministry of

ER refurnished by Palauans In Central Texas.
New ER waiting room benches being recieved from PHS carpentry shop supervisor
The ER waiting room was recently re-furnished with four
brand new benches. When asked about these new benches
Antonnete Merur said “sometime last year I took photos of
OPD and ER chairs and made comparisons ...the upstate and the
ghetto” referring to the new ones at the OPD and the torn up old
ones at the ER. Antonnette shared these images with her friends
in a Palauan Community Group in Texas who, upon seeing the
old and torn up ER waiting room chairs, decided to do some
fundraising to help raise some money for replacing the worn
chairs in the ER. The group “Palauans in Central Texas” orga-
nized a concert event in January of 2015 and raised the funds to
be given to the MOH for these chairs and in March of 2015 a
representative of the group Palauans in Central Texas, by the
name of Mistica Malsol Giltug came from texas to personally
hand over a check to the Palau Nurses Association with instruction to purchase brand new seats for the ER waiting room. In
support to our public school systems, the check was then brought
over to the Palau High School Carpentry Shop and an order was
placed for four brand new benches to be placed in our Hospital
ER waiting room. A special thanks is offered to the group “Palauans in Central Texas” for your generous donation and support;
with special thanks to the Palau High School Carpentry Shop and
their students for a fantastic Job with these gorgeous benches.
Action Plan to
Combat NCD’s. .
.Continued from pg. 1
... of metabolic risk factors that lead to NCD’s. The Plan also
looks at evidence based interventions and strategies that have
been proven to work in addressing issues related and lead to
NCDs.
The National CM created by Executive Order 379 will be
comprised of various governmental and community based organizations, which are tasked to collaborate to implement the
strategies laid out in the plan.
For more information about the Palau NCD Prevention and
Control Plan or more information about how to avoid NCDs,
contact the Non-Communicable Disease Unit at 488-4612.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
palauhealth.org volume I, issue IV May 2015
National Strategic Action Plan Launched To Combat NCD.
Rubekul Belau, Mechesil Belau, and Community Partners pose for group photo
RN Louisa Benaya completes
Post-Grad Diploma at FNU
Congratulations are
extended from all at MoH to
RN Louisa Benaya for
successful completion of her
Post-Graduate Diploma in
Nursing Practice as a Nurse
Practitioner at Fiji National
University in Suva.
Ms
Benaya is pictured here at
her graduation ceremony in Fiji last month. She has since
returned to Palau and is now on roster at the OB/Gyn ward at the
Belau National Hospital.
Director of Bureau of Nursing, Jenny Anastasi, explains that
the Nurse Practitioner role is critical in the way forward for
improving the effectiveness of primary health care and health
services, and the prevention of the complications of non-communicable diseases in Palau. With specialized clinical training Nurse
Practitioners help to expand the reach of nursing service levels at
the inpatient, outpatient and community level. NP services help
improve access to health services, reduce wait times and alleviate
pressures on the. . . continued pg.2
page 4 MOH pulse May 2015
As non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as a major health crisis
continue to affect thousands of people in the Pacific region, Palau
has launched its NCD Prevention and Control Strategic Plan of
Action for 2015 to 2020.
After months of collaboration and planning, the Ministry of
Health along with its many partners and stakeholders launched the
plan in unison with the signing of Executive Order 379 by President Tommy Remengesau Jr., creating a National Coordinating
Mechanism (CM) to implement the plan.
The NCD Strategic Plan will serve as a national guide for all
efforts devised to combat and contain the threat of NCDs. The
plan lays out a framework that aims to reduce the burden of
NCDs in Palau by focusing on five areas that include reducing
tobacco consumption; reducing the harmful use of alcohol;
reducing physical inactivity; improving nutritional intake; and
reducing the prevalence . . . continued pg.4
Children’s Mental health Awareness Day
Long Island Park, May 8th 2015
For the past years, the Ministry of Health have
offered young children, youth, and young adults with
mental health and substance use challenges in the
Republic of Palau, the services and supports they need
to meet their goals at home, at school, and in the
community.
The Behavioral Health Division and the Palau
Behavioral Health Advisory Council, led the 2nd
National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day at
the Carnival to highlight the importance of positive
mental health. This year’s focus is on “Building Resilience and Positive Support”. It was a whole day of
activities which kicked off with a Ribbon Cutting led
by Honorable Minister Gregorio Ngirmang.
Minister of Health Attends 11th
Pacific Health Ministers Meeting
in Fiji
Ngirmang added: “I would like to thank the Government and the
Ministry of Health of Fiji for hosting the event and the Secretariat
of the Pacific Community (SPC) and Dr. Shin Young-soo, the
Regional Director for WHO Western Pacific Region for their
support for health for the people of Palau and the Pacific.”
The Eleventh Pacific Health Ministers meeting was held from
15-17 April, 2015. After the first meeting, nine subsequent biennial meetings of Ministers of Health for the Pacific Island Countries were convened. The last two meeting in Honiara and Apia
have seen a remarkable shift in agenda planning, responding to
suggestions that the process be more participatory and the host
government lead the process.
Meyuns Elementary School is
Starting Health Program with Shin
Kong Hospital
the implementation of the Program at MES. Both Ministers were
encouraged and impressed by what they had seen. With collaborative efforts between MES and Shin Kong Hospital, along with
support given by Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health,
ROC Embassy and Taiwan Technical Mission, it is foreseeable
that the Program will become a success.
The Drug & Therapeutic
Committee workshop
RN Benaya continued from
pg. 1
Greg Ngirmang, the Minister of Health recently attended 11th
Pacific Health Ministers Meeting in Fiji. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together the health leaders in the Pacific to
discuss national, regional and global health initiatives and priorities. The first meeting took place in Yanuca, Fiji on March 1995
where the ministers adopted the vision of ‘Healthy Islands” as the
unifying theme for health in the region. The event has come full
circle, as decades later; Fiji again hosted the event commemorating 20 years of the Yanuca Declaration: “Healthy Islands”. This
year, the heads of health in the region reaffirmed the “Healthy
Islands” vision by reviewing, discussing, making recommendations and implementing programs which focus on the following
areas:
• Children who are nurtured in body and mind
• Environment invite learning and leisure
• People work and age with dignity
• Ecological balance is a source of pride
• The ocean which sustains us is protected
The “Health Islands” vision provides a common rallying point,
which centers on the family and community values, the foundation of the Pacific culture, a strength that should be further
nurtured and affirmed.
“The Healthy Islands vision continues
to be a beautiful and pure expression of where we need to be
heading. These meetings have become a golden opportunity to
collaborate in charting the course of health and development for
the next generation. Working together, we can make the Healthy
Islands vision a reality for our children.” remarked WHO’s
Regional Director for the Western Pacific Region, Dr Shin
Young-soo.
Gregorio Ngirmang, Minister of Health stated: “The event was
a great success, as it gave Palau the opportunity collaborate with
the leaders of health in the region, learn from one another’s
successes, and share information and resources about improving
health indicators both at home and globally.”
page 2 MOH pulse May 2015
...health-care system by providing patients with diagnosis
and curative interventions, wellness strategies and early
interventions. NPs provide client education, support health
promotion, and involve patients and families in effective
care decision-making within practice guidelines.
Ms. Benaya describes her achievement as “The best thing I
have ever done. It was challenging at the beginning. It
required a lot of time management and commitment. .
.Now it feels great. I feel it will help me to provide proper
services to improve health outcomes for Palauans.” When
asked about how she sees her future, Ms Benaya said “I am
looking forward to fulfilling public healths role and make
the best use of the new skills I have learned. But I still want
to stay as a practicing midwife as well.”
Ms Benaya expects to be a key player and work closely with
nursing management and other Nurse Practitioners at the
Ministry to develop scope of practice guidelines to ensure
that all NPs in Palau are given opportunities to make best
use of their skills and expertise to improve health of
individuals and communities.
All nursing colleagues at MoH congratulate our latest
‘champion’ and new Nurse Practitioner, Louisa Benaya.
pulse
MOH Pulse is published monthly by the
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support by the US Centers for Disease Control &
Prevention (CDC).
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ROC Ambassador Tseng, Minister of Health Ngirmang, Minister of Education Soalablai together
inspected the Program at MES on April 28, 2015.
Shin Kong Hospital is expanding their healthcare service from
acute phase to preventive approach. The Program which aims to
stop students from becoming obese is now launched in Meyuns
Elementary School (MES) and it includes provision of vegetable
to school lunch and special-designed healthy lectures given by
two physician draftees to MES.
“Stopping Non-Communicable Diseases has been our goal of
current health policy and I am glad that we have the chance to
make our own effort by working with Shin Kong Hospital on this
Program,” noted Enitha Edwards, Principal of Meyuns Elementary School.
The Program is designed to establish healthy lifestyle since
young age by having healthy diet and physical activities. Students
are encouraged to eat more fruits and vegetables to achieve the
recommended “5-a-day”, which means eating 5 servings of vegetables and fruits everyday. They also keep a “food diary” to record
the amount of vegetable they have everyday to raise their awareness to the food they are eating.
Physical activities are also a crucial part of healthy lifestyle.
According to recent report, children’s lifestyle is going sedentary.
In MES, students already have plenty of choices to do sports. For
the Program enrollees, they have an additional choice which is
jumping ropes, a high-intensity exercise that is good for maintaining both heart and lung function. This is a good way to spend
energy while losing some weight to keep body in good condition.
Except for healthy diet and physical activities, students have
lectures on related topics to learn better concept. Lectures are
designed based on the recommendation of Healthy Islander
Program, and combined with Ministry of Education’s health
program outline.
On April 28th, Minister of Education, Hon. Sinton Soalablai,
and Minister of Health, Hon. Greg Ngirmang, were accompanied by ROC Ambassador Harry H. J. Tseng to inspect
Participants of the Drug and Therapeutic Committee workshop, held at the Penthouse
hotel.
These past two months, the Drug and Therapeutic Committee,
chaired by Dr. Lala and vice-chaired by Dr. Angela Marcil, conducted a two days workshop at the Penthouse hotel. At these meetings
members of the committee including respected doctors, nurses and
pharmacists interactively compiled a document called the Standard
Treatment Guideline (STG). The final document, which will be a
product of recommendations from evidence-based international
treatment guidelines, will be used by physicians as a guide when
treating patients. This is an important milestone for the Ministry of
Health as it is the first meeting of its kind .The document will serve
to inform or remind healthcare workers what has been made
available based on local resources and what the protocol is.
This will be used as a reference to prescribe patients with required
medicines including controlled drugs such as Tylenol 3, Tramadol
and other narcotic classified medications. The activities of the two
days included presentations from doctors addressing common
illnesses encountered by the ministry of health such as diabetes,
hypertension, respiratory disorders in children, geriatric health,
gout, marine injuries and emergencies, pain management, Tuberculosis, osteo arthritis, ischaemic heart disease, aneamia, alcohol &
drug withdrawal, peptic ulcer disease and tobacco cessation.
The recommendations from this discussion will contribute to the
revision of the 2006 “Belau National Hospital Formulary”, which
is the essential medicines list that MOH makes available for the
communities
This is an initiative in process which will result in the revisions of
existing formulary and the launching of the STG. This workshop is
made possible through partnership between the World Health
Organization (WHO) and the Family Health Unit(FHU) of the
Ministry of Health.
page 3 MOH pulse May 2015