CARICOM Endorses Disaster Training for Caribbean Environmental Health Professionals

The Caribbean is exposed to the risk of natural and manmade hazards, especially hurricanes and storms associated with the annual hurricane season. The environmental health sector is often affected. To address this reality, the Ministerial Council for Health and Social Development (COHOSOD) of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has endorsed a three-step education and training program for all Caribbean environmental health professionals, which includes a module on disasters. This training will help to ensure that all future professionals at the technical, supervisory and managerial levels will be aware of the potential hazards and their repercussions and have the basic skills necessary to build capacity for disaster risk reduction in the environmental health sector.

This initiative expands the range of professionals in the Caribbean with education and skills in health disaster reduction, as it adds to those who already benefit from similar training in the Masters of Public Health Program of the University of the West Indies. This represents a key development in efforts to institutionalize and strengthen health sector disaster management programs in the Caribbean. For more information, contact Ivan Alert at alertiva@cpc.paho.org.

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