Staff members in the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Innovation and Digital Transformation and Information benefited from a range of health checks during a health fair at Arnos Vale on Wednesday, 14th October, 2026.

The initiative provided staff members with access to a number of health services, including blood pressure and blood sugar screenings, eye testing, as well as dental and hearing assessments.

Director of Health and Wellness within the Ministry of Education, Dr. Grace Walters, spoke with the API about the significance of the health fair.

Walters noted: "We are having what we dubbed in the Ministry of Education a wellness day. Today we are doing a number of assessments. Nothing interventional; basically we are doing screening, so we have with us the persons from the Nutrition Unit within the Ministry of Health. We have also our psychologist Dr. Kevin Glasgow who is here with us; he is doing screening in mental health. We have also audiometry; we have the audiometric technicians who are doing screening for hearing, and they are also doing assessments for your ears to make sure that everything is okay with that. We have members of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Diabetic Hypertensive Association who are assisting also with screening for blood pressure and blood sugar. I think once persons know that the management of their organization cares about their health, they in turn will feel more inspired and feel more a part of something that is looking out for them."

Psychologist at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, Dr. Kevan Glasgow, highlighted the importance of mental health and outlined practical steps for managing stress, maintaining emotional well-being, and achieving a healthy work-life balance.

Dr. Glasgow added: "We all must be intentional about our overall well-being and functioning even in the workplace, and we don't have to wait for a vacation to do our own inventory to check in with ourselves. I believe we all have capacity; we are shining bright. But there are times when we might not have that capacity or we might feel overwhelmed, and many times what we find in the work environment is that we have been carrying quite a bit. So the workload, our personal load, family, other stressors, even the financial stressors that we are faced with here today. But we find that a lot of times we are carrying too much for too long and we are carrying it alone."

SOURCE: National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC Radio)