National NCD Commission Barbados

19/09/2025

Wear your sneakers next week Friday September 26th ,2025!

The Ministry of Health and Wellness invites all Barbadians to take part in a physical activity initiative entitled National Sneaker Day on Friday scheduled for September 26, 2025.This island-wide campaign encourages all individuals to incorporate simple, healthy movements into their daily routines. On National Sneaker Day, everyone is encouraged to wear sneakers with their regular attire and share their activities online.


How to Participate

Post selfies or videos of yourself or your group engaging in simple physical activities at work such as stretching, taking the stairs, or walking during breaks and upload them to Instagram using the hashtag between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on September 26, 2025 for a chance to win exciting prizes! Don’t forget to tag and follow .

Four amazing prize categories are up for grabs, the Most Creative Post, Most Liked Post, Individual Winner, and Group Winner!

Prizes Include:

One-month gym membership at Beyond Limits Fitness Centre

$100 Payless voucher

Tickets to the Atlantis Submarines Barbados Experience .est1987

Tickets to Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary

Winners will be announced on October 10, 2025, via the NCD Commission Instagram page ().

11/09/2025

The excitement of Mr. Carter in teaching students of Milton Lynch School about growing local Bajan vegetables has become an area that gets the students' full attention.

The students are fully involved in planting and harvesting the carrots, beets, tomatoes, and lettuce. They then learn how to cook the produce they harvested. This is truly a local farm-to-table experience for the students, which generates loads of fun and the students always want more.

Enhanced classes in agriculture and cooking are two of the pillars of the school nutrition policy. This policy is set to change the trajectory of our children's lives. We must ensure that our school nutrition policy is fully implemented to give our children Healthy Futures

02/09/2025

Students of Milton Lynch Primary thoroughly enjoyed cooking with local Bajan fruits and vegetables with Childhood Obesity Prevention Advocate Dr. Mercedes Harris. As the students explore cooking at school, they are excited to do the same at home with their parents and guardians. Cooking with local fruits and vegetables with their parents will increase their interest in eating them. Children enjoy seeing the bright colours of the fruits and vegetables in their food. A good tip is to cut them into small pieces while making the cooking process fun.

With healthy eating habits both at home and at school, we can decrease the level of obesity and non-communicable diseases in our young population, reclaiming the health of the next generation. Let's work together to create healthy futures for our children.

01/09/2025

31% of children in Barbados are obese or overweight, and the school nutrition policy can help change these alarming numbers with its full implementation. Our children spend a great amount of their time at school, in the care of our teachers and principals.

With that care at school comes responsibility, and their health is an important aspect of that responsibility. The school nutrition policy has been created to foster good health, ensuring healthy habits are nurtured. The policy also introduces other benefits to schools with mandatory exercise for students, cleaner school environments and greater discipline in our children.

These benefits will not only nurture healthier children but they will result in healthier adults. Creating a healthy future now creates a healthy country.

25/06/2025

25/06/2025

The World Health Organization (WHO) today released its report on the Global To***co Epidemic 2025 at the World Conference on To***co Control in Dublin, warning that action is needed to maintain and accelerate progress in to***co control as rising industry interference challenges to***co policies and control efforts.

The report focuses on the six proven WHO MPOWER to***co control measures to reduce to***co use, which claims over 7 million lives a year:

Monitoring to***co use and prevention policies;

Protecting people from to***co smoke with smoke-free air legislation;

Offering help to quit to***co use;

Warning about the dangers of to***co with pack labels and mass media;

Enforcing bans on to***co advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and
Raising taxes on to***co.

Since 2007, 155 countries have implemented at least one of the WHO MPOWER to***co control measures to reduce to***co use at best-practice level. Today, over 6.1 billion people, three-quarters of the world’s population, are protected by at least one such policy, compared to just 1 billion in 2007. Four countries have implemented the full MPOWER package: Brazil, Mauritius, the Netherlands (Kingdom of the), and Türkiye. Seven countries are just one measure away from achieving the full implementation of the MPOWER package, signifying the highest level of to***co control, including Ethiopia, Ireland, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia and Spain.

Visit (to download the report):
https://www.who.int/news/item/23-06-2025-to***co-control-efforts-protect-6.1-billion-people-who-s-new-report

13/06/2025

The Honourable Davidson Ishmael, Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Ministry of Health & Wellness, Barbados , Minister of Health Senator Dr. The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott and Senior Ministry staff were pleased to be in attendance at the opening of the Caribbean Regional Conference of Psychology. The theme for this year’s Conference is "Caribbean Psychology: Building Mental Health Resiliencies, Empowering Our Communities".

Minister Ishmael served as a panellist in the discussion on - Geo-psychiatry and Transdisviplinary Collaboration for Mental Health.

Discussion points included:

✅️ How we deploy and define our mental health services

✅️ How we ensure resilience especially after experiencing environmental shocks

✅️ Where one lives (social determinants of health) affecting one’s Mental Health

Have you ever thought of this?

The Ministry of Health and Wellness in partnership with the Mental Health Commission of Barbados is actively involved in improving Mental health services and policies in

🟢 smart health set-up to accommodate these shocks e.g.

🟢 The Bridgetown Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health initiative, factors in climate and how other shocks affect the individual.

The discussion around financing and accounting also took into consideration that we must seek to allow for countries to re-direct funding to address climatic shocks especially if there are country-specific loans to larger agencies.

11/06/2025

A major expansion of the physical structure at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is on the way.

This announcement comes from Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley. https://www.cbc.bb/news/local-news/major-upgrades-for-barbados-healthcare-system

11/06/2025

Left! Right! Left! - Are You Ready for the Barbados Defence Force Bootcamp?

Watch Episode 5 of The Wellness Effect podcast where Dr. Kenneth Connell and Prof. Dwayne Devonish chat with Lieutenant Colonel JW David Clarke and Colour Sgt Malcolm Oughterson about their upcoming bootcamp.

Watch it here on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bceEApBh6io

08/06/2025

07/06/2025

Take control of your health and visit Stall 22 TIE 2025!!