Closure of Daycare Centers - March 19, 2020 / Closure of Daycare Centers

The Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation, and Poverty Alleviation advises the public that effective Saturday, March 21st, 2020 all daycares will suspend operations until Monday, April 20th, 2020 when schools are scheduled to reopen.

Health needs of a place of safety for children in Kingston Metropolitan (Glenhope Nursery)

This cross-sectional study was based on determining the health needs of children at a place of safety in Kingston metropolitan namely Glenhope Nursery. The level of care being provided for the children at the institution as well as the children's physical, mental and social health status were determined. The institution suffered from overcrowding and shortage of caregivers and was inadequate in meeting some of the children's needs. The most important need of the children as perceived by the caregivers (83 percent) was "someone to talk to". All the caregivers (n=18) stated that of the needs that were not adequately addressed by the institution the physical need was most outstanding. The high prevalence of common illnesses (skin infection, ear, nose and throat infection and upper respiratory infection) indicate that overcrowding was a contributing factor. The Denver II Development Screening Test showed that 88 percent of the children had a language development problem and that a significant amount of the children had personal - social and motor development problems. Anthropometry revealed that there was a moderately high level of malnutrition. The dietary survey showed that the diet was deficient in some nutrients while excessive in others. Because of the small population of caregivers and children whatever significant association was made could not be considered as being final (AU)

Feasibility study of private sector family planning and child care services in Grenada

Presents the results of a study of the demand for work-based family planning and day care services on an industrial estate. The methodologies were market research and financial forecasting. Potential demand for Grenada were derived from average demand expressed by Eastern Caribbean women workers previously surveyed in other islands. Data for the financial forecasts and demand estimates for family planning options and day care centre options are given

Food safety: implications for community health

This communication addresses the issue of food safety and community health. It focusses on health in terms of its contribution to quality of life and to production. Mothers and children are at greatest risk, particularly in developing countries. The role that a community can play in identifying risk factors associated with nutrition, in improving the quality of food intake and in monitoring growth and standards, is illustrated through a brief review of two programmes initiated and piloted through the Department of Social and Preventative Medicine, University of the West Indies - the Backyard Nursery Project and the Community Health Aide Project. The value of backyard gardening is highlighted (AU)

Nutritional status and development of St. Lucian children at day care centres

This was a comparitive study of children who attended day-care centres with those who stayed at home in St. Lucia. The children came from very similar social backgrounds and were compared using anthropometry and their performances at the Bettye Caldwell Preschool Inventory and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary tests. The quality of the service given in the day care centres was assessed. Finally the environment of the centres was compared with that of the homes of the community children. The sample consisted of 60 children, 30 in three rural government centres and from the communities nearest the centres. There were 28 boys and 32 girls with an age range of 40-64 months and a mean age of 51.7 ñ 5.7 months. It was found that there was no significant difference between the combined centre and the combined community anthropometry values. No significant difference was found between the centre and children in the Peabody Picture Vocabulary raw scores (centre mean - 16.5 ñ 4.6; community mean - 15.9 ñ 6.9). However significant difference was found in the Bettye Caldwell Preschool Inventory total scores between centre (mean = 33.8 ñ 7.7) and community children (mean = 27.7 ñ 8.1), scores were similar to those of four year old Dominican children but lower than those of Jamaican children. The centres were found to offer an environment richer in play equipment than that of homes, but not necessarily safer or with greater adult-child interactions. The centres were found to be deficient in safety measures such as fire safety, first aid, monitoring of health and nutritional status, furniture available, toilet facilities for the children and staff, and space available for the children to play. The staff had duties other than child play, and although reasonably qualified, with a reasonable staff-child ratio of 1:12.5, interaction with the children was limited. It was concluded that a higher school achievement was associated with attendance at the centre and may be attributed mainly to the presence of the higher level of of play equipment offered at the centre. Attention should be paid to the improvement of safety measure, monitoring of health and nutritional status and availabilty of outdoor space. It is suggested that possibly training of the mothers to interact with their children may improve the school achievement scores of the community children. (AU)

Nutrition, social and intellectual performance of rural pre-school children in St. Lucia: the contribution of day-care centres - abstract

Day-Care attenders spend much time at the centres. Therefore their intellectual, social, health and nutritional needs should be satisfied. Little work has so far been done in St. Lucia to determine if this occurs. We compared attenders with non-attenders, using anthropometry and performances at Bettye Caldwell Pre-school Inventory and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The quality of service given was assessed and the environment was compared with that of the homes of non-attenders. Sixty children, 30 in 3 rural Government centres and 30 from nearby communities, were tested. There were 28 boys and 30 girls ranging in age from 40-64 months (mean=51.7 ñ 5.7 months). We found higher mean achievement (attenders=16.5ñ4.6; non-attenders = 15.9ñ6.9). No signifcant anthropometric differences were found between attenders and non-attenders. However, the current nutritonal status was correlated with the children's performance since very strong negative associations were found between wasting and test scores. We conclude that although each child's nutritional status strongly predicted his achievement level, it was not the factor contributed by the centres. We suggest that the main factors contributing to the higher achievement and sociability of attenders were the increased availability of play equipment and the company of different adults (AU)

An evaluation of day care services in Kingston and St. Andrew, Jamaica

The survey was carried out in 14 Day Care Centres, both private/profit and public/non-profit. The age range of the children is from six weeks to 3.5 years. The quality of service offered was found to be directly related to the level of training of the staff and also to the ratio of number of children per staff member. All areas relating to the well being and development of the children in these centres are discussed (AU)