Collaboration with religious institutions will foster health promotion interventions: Dr Sushil
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Recognizing the role of religious organizations as supporters of health interventions, Dr. Sushil Sharma held a day long health check up-cum-awareness camp in collaboration with Dogra Brahmin Pratinidhi Sabha, Jammu on the occasion of Shri Parshuram Jayanti celebrations.
He stated that religious organizations, across religious denominations and congregation size and structures, can serve as key implementation sites for health promotion and disease prevention to reach the marginalized population.
He underscored the need to designate religious organizations as natural partners and relevant stakeholders for the delivery of health promotion programs due to a number of factors, including their role as community centres; access to large segments of the population, especially marginalised groups; supportive infrastructure (e.g., government functionaries, communication channels, regularity of contact); presence of support networks (e.g., prayer groups), and personnel resources (e.g., volunteers).
Dr. Sushil particularly highlighted the positive role of religious institutions during COVID-19 outbreak when it was difficult to make people understand necessary advisories related to burial of deceased and essential rituals attached to them. Due to the timely intervention of religious leaders and institutions, we observed complete prohibition regarding visit to places of worship.
It is important to mention at this juncture that when it was challenging for doctors and scientists to convince people regarding the danger of COVID-19 transmission, the religious institutions try to fill this gap by improving the relationship between religion and health, focusing especially on prioritizing health needs of the common populace.
Public health promotion is a multi-sectorial enterprise involving community, state and federal government agencies. It is important to perceive religious organizations as key partners in the sustenance and promotion of public health.
Health promoters should thus consider collaborations with religious organizations of their respective area to enhance the health of their community, he stressed.
More than 200 patients were examined, evaluated and advised during the camp. ECG, Blood Sugar was conducted and medicines were also given as per the requirements
Management committee of the Dogra Brahman Pratinidhi Sabha Vaid Parkash Sharma( President ), M.L Sharma, Shiv Ram Sharma, Jagan Nath, Chander Mohan, K.K Sharma, Subhash Sharma, Ramesh Sharma, Tarsem lal and Soujanya Sharma expressed their heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Sushil and his team for organising Medical Cum Health awareness camp.
Others who were part of this camp include Dr S K Bali (Nephrologist), Dr Lakeshwer Khajuria (Dy Comdt. BSF), Dr Anitipal Singh, Dr Danish Naik. Paramedics and Volunteers includes Kamal Sharma, Raghav Rajput, Rajinder Singh, Aman Gupta, Akshay Kumar, Rajesh Suri, Milan Kapoor, Maninder Singh, Narinder Mahajan, Vinod Sharma, Vikas Kumar, Gourav Sharma, Rajkumar , Ranjeet Singh and Amandeep Singh.
