Old Harbour Bay teachers benefit from TagHeart Foundation’s third mission

With literally the last week of the academic yearend the foundation was back in Jamaica, this time at the Old Harbour Bay Primary School.

Twenty-eight of 40 persons, inclusive of teachers and general staff members, were granted free health screening by the United States-based charity created two years ago by Jamaican couple of Mark McTaggart and Dr Odette Thomas, the latter a native of Colbeck, Old Harbour while the former a Kingstonian and Kingston College alumnus.

In giving a brief review assessment of this year’s mission, Dr Thomas told Old Harbour News: “We did our usual blood pressure screening, blood sugar screening and BMI assessment. We provided one on one medical consultation.

“We diagnosed previously unknown hypertension in a few teachers and even sent one teacher to the hospital for further care.

“We gave out school bags, first aid kits and gift bags with stress balls, water bottle, aromatherapy sachets, sleep masks and a TagHeart wrist band.”

First established at the backend of the global coronavirus health pandemic which took the lives of many educators or caused permanent or severe damage to their health, TagHeart Foundation has been on a mission to raise “awareness of health and wellness to educators” in Jamaica “through on-site health screening, community service, and educational tools to optimize their health”. 

Now on their third mission, that’s precisely what the foundation has been doing since its establishment.

“The health fair was well received and appreciated. The Old Harbour Bay Primary School personnel were vibrant and welcoming. We spent quality time getting to know its teachers, listening to their stories, their health concerns while being able to provide resources and information to a receptive audience,” Thomas added.

“This year, our goal was to not only bring knowledge of the teachers’ health baseline, including their blood pressure, blood sugar and BMI, but we were able to provide the teachers with wellness bags.

“This is the first year wherein we provided our participants with tangible tools with the aim of improving wellness and alleviating stress. Our reusable wellness bags contained a stress ball, an eye mask to aid in optimal sleep, a lavender-filled aromatherapy sachet for relaxation, and a water bottle to reminder us to hydrate. We’re really excited about the addition of our wellness bag, and it’s our goal to continue providing these bags to persons at of our health fairs, each year with varying gifts.

“We maintained our practice of gifting the schools with first aid kits and school bags to be given to children most in need.”

Many Jamaicans, including educators, are among a high number of subgroups diagnosed with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like hypertension and diabetes. According to local heath data, most people are unaware of their health status due to infrequent screening.

As a medical doctor the fact that these persons are not aware prior to being positively diagnosed with an NCD is not a surprise, said Thomas.

“It’s all too frequent that we hear of illnesses and untimely passing of our educators and with a little more care and focus on their health we can see an improvement in the quality of life for our teachers,” she said.

“As an example, during our health fair, our team identified a teacher that had to go to hospital. She had severe high blood pressure as well as an extremely high blood sugar, which left untreated could have resulted in a stroke or diabetic coma, respectively. Thankfully, we were able to quickly assess the situation and were able to get her to the hospital in time. There she was treated and was able to be released without further complication.

“It was a relief when we spoke after her discharge that thankfully, she was doing so much better.”

Since its first mission the TagHeart Foundation has rendered services at Marlie Mount and Old Harbour primary schools, adding that it will continue to target institutions within the Old Harbour space before exploring beyond Jamaica’s fastest growing town.

“What’s next for the Tagheart Foundation, well we intend to continue our outreach to the primary level schools in Old Harbour and its environs. To be that resource for advice and counsel for our local teachers,” Dr Thomas reasoned.

“We aspire to engage local and US-based corporate sponsorship. We aim to expand the services we offer during our health fairs while amplifying our ground based operation team in Jamaica. We recognize the growing needs of our educators and we aim to increase our scope and capacity to meet those needs.

We would like to be that glue that binds the educators of our area schools together, to collectively focus on our teachers’ health and well-being by working together with a shared goal to optimize wellness for all.”