Union encouraging senior citizens to get in shape

While promoting the benefits of healthy living to the island’s workforce, the Barbados Workers Union is also doing what it can to encourage senior citizens to get in tip top shape.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the Healthy Living Project for the BWU’s Retirees at Solidarity House earlier this week, General Secretary Toni Moore said that the first-of-its-kind programme was created specifically for the 65 year and over demographic.

“We believe that this project when added to our ongoing programmes for our retirees, will assist them to live longer and enjoy a better quality of life,” she stated.

The project includes monthly sessions of exercise classes, health education and peer support to influence the establishment of health behaviors in our 65 year-plus retirees group with the aim of educating participants on benefits of healthy eating and physical activity and to explore attitudes towards the development of healthy behavior improvement.

Moore outlined that given the spiraling human and economic costs caused by the increases in non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, for the past 20 years, the union has been in partnership with the Healthy Ministry through its Health Promotion Unit and Commission for Non-Communicable Diseases, to coordinate programs and workshops on a range of health promotion issues.

“We in the BWU do not regard NCDs in a void because we have lost a number of our staff and key members who have died from complications resulting from NCDs – so we are fully cognisant of the corrosive nature of these diseases and their burdensome human and money costs, resulting from illness, pain and suffering, lower limb amputations, loss of vision – particularly by diabetics, hospitalization, absences, presenteeism and death,” she stated.

She noted that while much of the efforts have been concentrated on the workforce, the benefits of creating programmes centre on the entire family setting could not be denied and as such the union’s focus had also turned to young workers and retirees.

A future goal of the union, she revealed, was to work within the schools. (JMB)