The recently formed Heart & Stroke Support Group is well on
its way to becoming an integral part of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of
Barbados. Set up in March this year, the group is an expansion of the
Foundation's rehabilitation programme, providing support and comfort in a number
of ways to persons who have had a heart problem or a stroke.
It replaces the Cardiac Support Group (CSG), which was
formed in 1998 specifically to give support to persons who had suffered a heart
attack. However, when the Heart Foundation of Barbados in April last year
embraced the interests of stroke to become the Heart & Stroke Foundation of
Barbados, all of the Foundation's activities and programmes were naturally
expanded to include the incidence of stroke.
This is particularly so in the Cardiovascular Disease
Prevention and Rehabilitation (CDP&R) programme, known as “The gym with a
difference”, where persons who have had a heart attack or stroke, or who are at
risk, are provided with a well-structured and supervised programme of exercise,
education, counseling and support. Trained nurses monitor their progress, and
there are sessions where such topics as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and
hypertension, stress, medication, nutrition, cardiac procedures and exercise and
its benefits are addressed.
Another of the Foundation's key areas of activity is the
Emergency Cardiac Care programme, which offers training in CPR and general First
Aid to individuals or groups.
Fully accredited American Heart Association instructors
conduct courses for laypersons and health care providers, including medical
students, medical doctors, nurses and paramedic personnel, that can save the
lives of people who are having a heart attack or stroke. Instruction is given in
Basic Life Support, Advanced Life Support, Paediatric Advanced Life Support, as
well as in the use of the Automated External Defibrillator, a simple but
revolutionary device that restarts the dying heart.
Volunteers and other interested persons form the nucleus of
membership of the Heart & Stroke Support Group, with staff members of the
Foundation providing technical and administrative backup. The group gives
support through visits to the patient following an operation, offering them
counseling and gifts of comfort. The counselling is an on-going process and
continues after the patient is discharged. Importantly, counselling is also
given to the patient's family.
Persons who have had the experience of a heart attack or
stroke are encouraged to join the Heart & Stroke Support Group, so that they can
pass on their encouragement and advice to others who may have similar problems.
A number of activities are being planned in order to raise
funds to sustain the group's activities. These include publishing material about
the activities, aims and objectives of the group, also providing information and
answers to questions that may be asked.
