An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

“Your health is your wealth, as you can­not pour from an emp­ty cup in­to oth­ers.”

That was the re­minder from Hand in Hand Foun­da­tion vice-pres­i­dent Ger­ard Coutain, who urged mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices to pri­ori­tise their health and en­sure they get reg­u­lar med­ical check­ups.

Coutain was speak­ing yes­ter­day as the North Cen­tral Di­vi­sion (NCD) host­ed a Health and Well­ness Fair at the Na­tion­al Rac­quet In­door Cen­tre in Tacarigua.

He said mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices rou­tine­ly leave their homes, fam­i­lies and loved ones to help make the coun­try safer, of­ten plac­ing the needs of oth­ers be­fore their own.

“The na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ser­vices go out on a dai­ly ba­sis. They leave their homes, their fam­i­lies and their loved ones to go out and make Trinidad and To­ba­go a safer place.”

How­ev­er, he said, up­on re­flec­tion, “It may not al­ways be what it seems.”

“We, as the Hand in Hand Foun­da­tion, in­vit­ed these per­sons to take a step back and let us start to take care of them.”

With Oc­to­ber ob­served as Breast Can­cer and Men­tal Health Aware­ness Month, Coutain said it was an ide­al time for of­fi­cers to get their health checked.

“If you get your­self healthy, you can be a bet­ter of­fi­cer. You can treat the pub­lic bet­ter,” he said.

Hand in Hand Foun­da­tion head WPC Re­anne Nicholas-Di­az shared sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments as she wel­comed of­fi­cers to take ad­van­tage of the health ser­vices of­fered at the fair.

These in­clud­ed blood pres­sure and blood sug­ar checks, eye tests and the op­por­tu­ni­ty to sign up for mas­sage ther­a­py ses­sions.

“To­day is for the pro­tec­tive ser­vices in­clud­ing Cadets, be­cause we have mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and oth­er agen­cies who are un­well,” she said.

Nicholas-Di­az cau­tioned that some peo­ple might feel healthy with­out re­al­is­ing they had un­der­ly­ing symp­toms. She too urged of­fi­cers to get them­selves checked, stress­ing, “We need you!”

Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent of the NCD, Vern­ly Gift, com­mend­ed his of­fi­cers for host­ing the fair, not­ing that oc­cu­pa­tion­al health and well­ness formed part of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice’s (TTPS) 2025/2027 Strate­gic Pri­or­i­ty.

“As law en­force­ment, it is im­por­tant to know what our health sta­tus is,” he said.

Gift added, “If we have of­fi­cers in law en­force­ment that are un­healthy, they are un­able to car­ry out their func­tions ef­fec­tive­ly to the cit­i­zen­ry of T&T and en­sure they get the type of ser­vice that they need from a healthy of­fi­cer.”

He ac­knowl­edged that some of­fi­cers were un­well and said the TTPS was ready to as­sist them where and how it could.