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welcome to the heart foundation of jamaica this week on the trailblazers we feature the heart foundation of jamaica which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year stay tuned to hear about the work and services of this organization their historic rise and why they continue to be a trailblazer in promoting heart health in jamaica [Music] the heart foundation of jamaica hfj was founded in 1971 by the lions club of kingston it's a non-profit non-governmental organization among the objectives of the foundation are prevention through education early detection through screening programs advocacy for policies that promote heart health and rehabilitation through education on healthy lifestyles among its services are medical in-house mobile advanced cardiac screening sudden cardiac arrest screening and many others the heart foundation of jamaica is critical in promoting heart health with cardiovascular diseases remaining the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in jamaica and the programs and services of the foundation are focused on reducing this problem its messages resound with the people of jamaica and in recent times many citizens have lauded the are you drinking yourself sig campaign which aims to encourage jamaicans to reduce the amount of added sugar in their diets as the heart foundation of jamaica celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2021 we applaud this trailblazer organization for promoting heart health in jamaica mrs debra chen is the executive director for the heart foundation of jamaica and as we continue to highlight this trailblazer organization we are happy to have a you know have a chat with her about the history and work of this phenomenal organization thank you so much for joining us on the program thank you so much for highlighting us on our 50th year that is indeed a major milestone so tell us i mean how is it that you first got involved with the high foundation of jamaica so i have been here since july 1992 there was a advert for a medical manager for the medical services at the time and i applied and got the job which i held until i think it was january 94 that i was made um executive director very good so what has the journey been like would you say for the organization over the years it's been a long journey i guess you don't really realize until you really stand and step back and take note but um we were in a much smaller building before with very limited services so over the years it has really been challenging to continue to expand to keep abreast with what was going on globally and what was possible locally in terms of our expanded services and having decided that of course there was always the funding how you're going to get the funding and of course you needed team members so if you're going to expand the services which cardiologists would come where would you get the equipment from you know but at all times we have had a very very strong and committed board of directors and along the way we have had good team members some have come and moved on to other things but you know everybody played their role so it was a joint effort but it really was challenging and i guess at the time you didn't really spend looking far far far far far down the road but you knew that at every step by the way you had to improve and you had to expand and as soon as you achieve one goal you set yourself another goal and move towards it definitely you mentioned just know in terms of the expansion of services tell us especially for viewers that may not know what are the services that are provided by the heart foundation of jamaica and also how has it evolved from what initially was offered so initially we had a mobile unit which used to the heart screening in those days it was mainly for romantic disease rheumatic heart failure before my time and as it evolved it got to be screening generally for heart disease what we did first was to expand our in-house services at the kingston office in the building next door to you know more screening then we got a doctor to start a blood pressure and diabetes clinic and then when we got the new building we could really do a lot more now we have five consultant cardiologists three nutritionists we still have the doctor with the blood pressure and diabetes clinic and really it's a one-stop heart shop anything you can imagine that you will need to maintain heart health we have it here at 28 beachwood avenue so you could come in and just say i want to be screened for heart disease with no letter no idea you just know you want to check on your heart you just turn up no appointment necessary and we will do some basic screening tests that would include the ecg that's measuring the electrical activity of the heart and some finger brick blood tests which will be done in just a matter of minutes so having done those tests and the registered nurse would look at your questionnaire to find out your medical history and family history we would then make recommendations as to next steps if any it may be that you're perfectly fine and you just keep coming back in a year and carry the result to your doctor but if we find anything that puts you at risk then we will take the next steps whether it is the heart specialist who would then send you for other tests and so on but we have biomedical lab here we have a full pharmacy so there is everything you could possibly need right here at 28 beachwood avenue certainly a one-stop shop and then when you look at in terms of persons over the years and the cases that you've had over the years any of them stand out to you in terms of how the foundation really helps to transform or to really help that person yes i think our biggest contribution is for persons who did not know that they had a problem before they came here yes and we find that certain occasions up there that lend itself to outside broadcast such as in heart month we find that people hear the messages from the various media personalities and turn up on the screen and we have found several cases over the years with really really high high blood pressure i mean so bad that we had to just say no you have to go straight to the hospital i mean even being with us wouldn't help you know so i think that has been our biggest contribution the percent of people who have found to have a problem who had no idea before they were screened after that it will be the persons that we have been able to maintain heart health so okay yes you develop high blood pressure many of us will develop that with age but we ensure that it's monetized it's it's it's kept on track it's kept within check and especially these days with corvid around persons who um have underlying health conditions are much more at risk should they contract kobe so the heart screening is really really really important at this time and we'd like to use the occasion of our 50th in particular to encourage everybody to come and be screened for heart disease you may not know it's not necessarily something you get a symptom from or you feel ill so the only way to know is to check so given that we're in a covered environment and any of us could catch covetous despite our best efforts it's best to ensure you are in the best heart health before so that should you contract it at least the outcome shouldn't be as bad as it could have been here everybody you need to go and get your heart screenings done and get it done right here as a heart foundation off jamaica and one man who definitely supports this cause is consultant cardiologist with the heart foundation of jamaica dr edward chung came back into the island in 1981 and i've been involved with the heart foundation since then just a little story when i came back i was assigned to the national chess hospital where i started the first cardiac unit within the government public service and at that time we had no equipment so we actually got the rotary club of canada to donate equipment to us and with the help of the heart foundation and the lions club of jamaica they were able to help us ship that equipment to jamaica clear it and we installed it in 1981 at the national chess hospital so that was my very very first work with the heart foundation and they were very instrumental in getting the cardiac unit started so i came on the board of the heart foundation somewhere between 1982 and 1983 and one of my first project with the heart foundation was to set up a cpr program and we started this with the help of project hope which was a voluntary organization that had come to jamaica and with the help of project hope we started the basic cpr program at the heart foundation and shortly after that we started doing advanced cpi according to dr chung the cpr program had its share of challenges it has been difficult because at the start there was a lot of resistance to the start of any cpr program there was the idea that maybe if we tried to resuscitate individuals they would not survive and we would have individuals that might require ventilation support that would not be available and it took a little bit of convincing to tell people that it's an important part of the whole training of individuals within the hospitals now i can say that it is well accepted worldwide both within the medical profession in the lay people profession that we can help we can save lives and since then it has gone from such a strength where we have expanded it from the initial looking at individuals within the hospitals for treating them and training them to individuals all over the island both within the medical profession within the hospital and also lay people also the heart foundation is involved with the emergency cardiac care program we have a national resource station council for which the heart foundation is a member and that sets standards for cpr so that everybody does it in the same way and we use a standard that is in ill core standard which is the international standard that is used throughout the entire world so whatever we do whatever we train whatever we teach is the same as if you were in germany britain or the united states i can tell you something about an incident that happened at the hospital i recall a lady who had had a cardiac arrest her heart had stopped beating and we were doing cpr and we resuscitated her and when she came back she looked at me and smiled and said thank you and why did you do it and i said well it is my job to try and help people and keep them alive and that was when it dawned on me that it's important that everybody needed to know how to do cardiac resuscitation because we all can help both lay people and as doctors to help to preserve life preserving lives that is what the heart foundation of jamaica is definitely helping to do it has established itself not only locally but also internationally so moving on uh mrs chen in terms of leadership because you are the executive director and i understand you've also served in various capacities internationally how is it that your work internationally helps to develop the work of the heart foundation of jamaica here locally yes so at this point i must mention our um peter bangata the founder of the heart foundation who passed away a couple years ago there was a point in our development when he decided that we really needed to spread our wings because you see when you when you're global you learn from your colleagues you learn you have access to funding and you're part of a much wider community than just the jamaican or even caribbean community so in about 1993 94 we joined the inter america heart foundation which is for all our region you know canada central south america north america and the caribbean and then from there we we grew at one point in time i've been a board member and still i'm at the moment a past president we also went on to join well no we were we were a member of the world heart federation from inception let me see from inception but we never actually started being able to attend their meetings which in those days the conferences were every four years till till many many years later so as part of that we then joined the inter america heart foundation i eventually became vice president of the world heart federation as well what it showed me was that jamaica had a lot to be proud of in terms of our achievements of a heart foundation even compared to other countries out there so when you measure up among other countries we were doing a pretty good job many countries could learn from us just as we could learn from other countries especially those in lower income resource settings so i think what it has done it has it has widened our contact base as a result we have had speakers for our various symposiums from many many other countries we have been able to access funding so when funding is available we apply people are aware of the work of the heart foundation and we have had funding from time to time to help with our advocacy programs so it really put us in a different mindset and also gave us something more to aspire to you can be very parochial living in a small island and i do think that we need to spread our wings and find out what's happening in the wider world so it has definitely helped us along and we continue to play leading roles in both those and some other organizations as well and would you say then that the heart foundation at 50 years of jamaica has revolutionized in terms of how jamaicans take care of their hearts i think so i think there's definitely it's hard to measure these things right but there's a lot more awareness heightened awareness about heart disease recall recently are um our campaign trying to alert jamaicans to the health harms of sugar when i mean i think most people know have a better understanding of how much sugar is is um in products that you would you would not be suspecting of you know so i think can increase awareness about what foods we eat um the sugar content about reading labels the importance of taking responsibility for your health and of course along with our colleagues of the ministry of health and wellness who will work very closely with so i think definitely advocacy is now something that is front and center to our work it's not good enough to just screen people for heart disease if the environment in which we live is not heart health is going to be hard to do so there's something we refer to as an obesogenic environment if you live in an environment where it's hard to exercise because security issues maybe your development wasn't built with a green space an environment where labels are not required that are um easily read by the public an environment where um high levels of sugar are allowed in school which has no change things like that so we are now focusing on policies that will promote heart health and that way you'll have a much bigger impact on reducing heart disease in the long term even though it's necessary to see each patient one person at a time but definitely advocating for policies that promote heart disease are also critical along with the continued screening service certainly and i mean that point that you mentioned in terms of the sugar content has really that message has really helped a lot of jamaicans i've had co-workers saying that oh they they put away the sword off just because of that um campaign so that's a tremendous work that you're doing there heart foundation is in a preventative mood at the moment where we are teaching individuals about health and healthy lifestyle so we will talk about dietary problems we will talk about what is the proper healthy way to live and how we actually treat individuals who have heart problems so prevention is a very important way that art foundation is now putting their mandate forward there is no doubt as to the role and work of the heart foundation of jamaica in helping to save lives and that message is also shared by chartered accountant and board treasurer of the foundation mr robert rhodes i'm delighted to be joined by mr robert rhoden and he is the heart foundation of jamaica board treasurer and it is a delight to have you on the program thank you and 50 years that's a big milestone congratulations thank you again yes yes so i mean you are by profession a chartered accountant yes so i'm you know i'm curious to find out how is it that you would have gotten involved with the heart foundation of jamaica well it all started when uh the firm that i was being trained at to be an accountant when i just left school the one of the partners david martin was a member of the lions club in fact i think he was the treasurer of the lions club and when the heart foundation was formed he offered them office space in the accounting firm where i was working wow so that was how i got connected to the heart foundation um it wasn't a big space a very small space and they had employed a secretary mrs elena grant and she was there just doing paperwork typing sending out letters in fact there's more of a secretariat that the art foundation has established and they were in the accounting firm so i was had access to them and obviously got that close to them awesome and i mean being the treasurer you're the person in charge of the money so how is it that you ensure that that party is also healthy as far as the money part go almost at a time when i joined that foundation mr bankers i made sure that there was adequate points in place so i i just came in at a very good and opportune time okay but i mean you could have come in and at the same time squandered it foundation the people who are running their foundation would not have allowed that to happen okay definitely all right so in terms of significant milestones into your involvement which ones you know stands out for you based on your involvement over the years i think somebody reminded me it must be the um event i was buying this building you know when you consider where i'm coming from with them they're a little office space of the accounting firm when they started and then they came here that occupied the building across the world from us here and then talked about this building the building that we the accountants had owned yeah this this this was something big i mean this was no normal feat and um it's just sure that their foundation had expanded so much that they needed to have this space and that that was good wow so when you compare where the organization has been since you have been involved of course the word is no you know what kind of comparisons can you draw the art foundation has been phenomenal i mean it's unbelievable where they're coming from and you know i recall when we came here they had just the same mrs grant they had a manager mrs shiro and i bought four or five staff and they were being trained to do ecg and heart blood pressure checks by a nurse from the university hospital who was also a director mrs sherry lopez and they started the mobile clinic and it's amazing i mean they just just grew and they just kept on going and going and going you know i know to the point where that all run the space and needed somewhere much bigger than where they were and as we mentioned our 50th anniversary that's a big deal the program is called yes would you say that the heart foundation of jamaica is a trailblazer organization in jamaica oh yes oh yes it has been been so yes and why would you say that well you know in in the field of of medicine at the time when the foundation had started there were hardly anyone else providing the services that the foundation was providing but if you look at over the years what has happened there have been a lot of you know trail business is exactly that right you have a trail and you're blazing and others are behind trying to follow you and if you look over there you'll see other other medical institutions trying to do the same thing that the art foundation has been doing albeit i think we are still the true visa so then if if the others are you know because perhaps they're emulating then but you are you have set the trail and you're blazing it yes what sets you apart what sets the foundation apart over all these years well you know we we have already been in the medical side of it but you know in recent years we have been into a lot of advocacy where we have been you know trying to educate the jamaican population on things like obesity albeit still affects the heart right and so much so that i think that's where we have separated ourselves from a lot of the others who are probably just merely providing a blood pressure check or ecg you know we have taken it beyond that definitely so on this their golden jubilee their 50th anniversary we salute this trailblazer organization the heart foundation of jamaica i hope that we'll have another 50 years of success and that there will be others coming along who will take over and ensure that that is so it's a testimony to the work that the heart foundation has done that the public has accepted the work that we do and they look towards the heart foundation as a leader within the society both to help them in their own medical needs and also in the preventative needs i would say to the heart foundation hearty congratulations we have done a tremendous job our first 50 years we started with small steps and now we are moving much stronger and we need to build on what we have done so we just like to thank all the jamaicans who have used our services over the years because as small as a fee maybe it helps us to help others continue to support us especially corporate jamaica to help us with medical equipment and so on but at the end of the day we just like to encourage all jamaicans to be screened you need to be screened you need to check your heart you cannot say that woman know for a fact that you don't have high blood pressure high cholesterol that your heart is working properly so please do an annual screening check and if you want to learn cpr we also have that as well at the heart foundation of jamaica so make it your goal to visit the heart foundation jamaica during our 50th year and if you can't make it then certainly have your heart checked by your health professional make it your goal come on board to the heart foundation of jamaica and get tested get involved take care of your heart and contribute to a heart healthy jamaica thank you so much mrs executive director for the heart foundation of jamaica and of course we continue to celebrate with them as they observe and celebrate their 50th anniversary [Music] [Music] [Music] hey everyone i am tamar mchale producer and host of the trailblazers series remember to hit the notification bell right below subscribe like comment and share and join the trailblazers family for weekly inspirational episodes every sunday