Carmona launches Parent Skills Training programme

Carmona made the call at the opening of the first local parent skills training programme for children with disabilities, aimed at empowering parents and children, which got underway yesterday at the Mount Hope Women’s Hospital, Mount Hope.

The effort at parent skills training, he said, should be a regional thrust and endorsed his wife, Mrs Reema Carmona’s suggestion in May this year that Caricom leaders declare a Caribbean Decade for Disabled Persons 2018- 2028 following the UN Decade for Disabled Persons 1983-1992 and the African Decade for Disabled Persons 1999- 2009. In a overview on how the programme came about, Carmona said, it was due to advocacy on the part of Mrs Carmona and Dr Natalie Dick, Specialist Developmental Behavioural Paediatrician at the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA).

He commended them for their efforts along with Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister Dr Ayanna Webster-Roy, and Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Jacqueline Johnson who is herself a person with a disability and who ensured the project’s implementation.

The programme involves the training of 16 master trainers, several children and their families, and a few observers and researchers. The master trainers will in turn train parents.