Dear PI-DPP Team,
Currently, Palau is inundated with high prevalence of NCDs. PI-DPP provides a pathway and mechanism to change Palau’s healthcare systems – healthcare fund and healthcare points of entries to institutionalize wellness and health protective measures as a mandatory primary care.
PI-DPP provided an opportunity for Belau Medical Clinic/Belau Wellness Center, Inc. to implement and test our wellness screening tool and health protective measures such as healthy lifestyle classes, exercise program, cooking classes in a more formalized way, having certified lifestyle coaches under the auspice of CDC. It gave us an opportunity to re-design and re-define our healthcare system from a disease model to a wellness model. This has become our opportunistic approach to bring wellness and health protective measures for individuals, people, and the community to access wellness and health services in the worksite and community levels to improve their health status.
Being a part of PI-DPP allowed Belau Medical Clinic/Belau Wellness Center, Inc. to be pioneers and a catalyst for change in healthcare systems in Palau. It’s important for us to have individuals and the community be aware that wellness and health protective measures are services that they can access to improve and maintain their health status.
Personally, PI-DPP gave me an opportunity to provide wellness and health initiatives for teachers, law enforcement-EMTs and police, and healthcare workers to improve their health status as they are the backbone of how we raise our children living in our pristine paradise. We now have a process to achieving health equity for Palauans and change our health status. We are now able to recreate learning for better health outcomes and design innovative access to physical activities, healthy foods, and happy selves living in Pristine Paradise.
– Pearl M., Program Coordinator
