American Regional Health Conference to unite health workers

More than 20,000 Nepali origin doctors, nurses, paramedics and other health workers live in America.

With an aim to bring all these scattered health workers under the same roof the first American Regional Health Conference is being held on May 27 and 28 in Dallas. The event is organised by Non-Resident Nepali Association’s Global Health Committee.

Health workers from more than 10 countries will be participating in the conference. The event will have a wide range of discussions on rising number of non-communicable diseases.

Swasthya Live talked about the conference with NRNA’s Global Health Committee Chair Dr Sanjeev Sapkota. Excerpts:

The first American regional health conference is being held in America, why is this conference necessary?

Discussions were held to conduct such a conference earlier but it could not take place as there were challenges. Though many organisations tried organising the event to bring everyone together it could not happen.

There are more than 20,000 health workers of Nepali origin living in various states in North and South America. The first regional conference is going to be held to bring them all together.

We are organising this event to bring all the nurses, doctors, epidemiologists, paramedics, health advocates and health professionals of Nepali origin living in Canada and America to bring together and connect them. As there are no any other organisations or institutions to hear the voices of the health workers we have decided to organise the event.

What is the main objective to organise this conference?

The conference is being organised with the aim to find the kinds of health problems in Nepalis living abroad are facing, and their access to the health care. Also the conference will focus on ways to ease their health related issues.

Some other objectives of organising the conference is to discuss ways to promote health sector and to look forward ways to improve life of Nepali citizens and Nepali health sector abroad and also to discuss ways to advice Nepal government in policy formation.

The main objective of the conference is to unite doctors, nurses and health professionals of Nepali origin in North and South America and create a network between them.

How many country representatives are participating in the event? How is the management done?

Representative from more than 10 countries including the United States of America, Canada, Mexico are participating in the event. Since we have a limited time for preparation of the conference it is not possible to make sure about the exact number of participants as of now. For those who cannot physically participate in the conference virtual connection has been managed.

Various health committees, scientific committees and other committees and sub-committees have also been formed for the successful completion of the conference and to take care of the accommodation for participants, management of the hall and registration.

What has the Global Health Committee of NRNA done in Nepal’s health sector so far?

The NRNA Global Health Committee has been organising various meetings and discussions to reduce the cost, time, and hassles of the health sector and has also been conducting discussions on preventive measures of diseases.

The committee has also worked to provide assistance and relief materials after disasters in Nepal. We had also assisted during the Gorkha earthquake 2015 and in other natural disasters.

The committee has also been spreading awareness on ways to improve health, and make health services easy and accessible and spreading awareness to disease prevention.

There are 80 branches of NRNA Global Health Committee across the world and they have also been working on various health issues and are advocating for improving health

What are your roles amid the growing risk of non-communicable diseases?

Non-communicable diseases have become a matter of great concern of late. The non-communicable diseases are increasing because of people’s lifestyle, diet and habit.

The risk of heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, mental health problems are alarming. Mental health problems are drastically increasing in people across the world. Depression and the number of suicide cases are increasing because of natural calamities and epidemics. Everyone should take initiative from their own level to prevent and resolve them.

One can improve his or her eating habits, adopt a healthy lifestyle and also seek telehealth services provided by the Global Health Committee. One can get information after contacting the committee. We are always ready and are working to reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases.

Now the mental health issues are emerging as a grave concern. It is important to raise voices on mental health issues. So far thousands of Nepalis have committed suicide and the rate is increasing annually. The role of Global Health Committee should be significant to promote mental health and prevent suicide in Nepalese.