Dr Basdeo plans to focus on wellbeing of young doctors

NEWLY appointed president of the Trinidad Tobago Medical Association (TTMA) Dr Damion Basdeo, 29, doesn’t want to take a unidirectional approach to medicine.

In his one year tenure, he hopes to have a multifaceted focus on transforming the association into a more efficient, member-public-oriented organisation.

He is an internal medicine registrar at the Sangre Grande Hospital and chairperson of the Healthiest World Initiative –a programme that aims to promote healthier mindset, bodies and environments.

Under his guidance, the association will continue to do more to achieve its four pillars of growth – a focus on communicable diseases, mental health, climate change and health, and boost blood donation efforts.

Basdeo hopes to work closely with past presidents and inspire young professionals to transform the medical industry in TT.

In a Sunday Newsday interview, he said, “Over this year the TT Medical Association will try to treat the members and work towards targeting patients holistically, to not only treat physical symptoms, but also get an idea of what they experience internally, psychologically and mentally.”

He finished his acute medicine speciality exam in 2017 and is completing his membership with the Royal College of Physicians in England.

Over the next 12 years, Basdeo will launch a number of public outreach programmes and promote continuous medical education among members.

“What we plan to do, and we have already started, is develop educational videos and educational pamphlets or by a soft copy.

“The outreach will also be aimed at targeting the non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancers as well as specialty screening of cancers.

“We'll try to get our patients to voice their experience, in that we get an holistic idea of what the patient is going through not only physical symptoms, but also the psychological and mental impact of the illness.”

Special focus will be placed on helping the Ministry of Health’s blood-drive programme to close the blood availability gap at the National Blood Transfusion Service.

“The whole idea is to integrate the different specialities, the different healthcare professionals as well, for example, nurses, doctors EMTs. So this year, we aim to work as a team with other NGOs, not in isolation.

“There is also the health of the healthcare professionals themselves, this is very important. With regards to the mental illness, going out, and even a reflection series, could target a healthcare professional or healthcare professional and allow them to give their own experience dealing with the pandemic.”

“They should not only focus on the patients, they need to also focus on themselves as well. So their own mental health, physical health wellbeing is important.”

Basdeo said he has a soft spot of mental health. It is actually the reason he explored a career in medicine.

His father developed Alzheimer’s disease when he was a teenager. Basdeo, who is from Gasparillo, said it’s been a difficult journey for him and his three siblings after the diagnosis.

“As a result, he was unable to do basic things and eventually he started to forget who we were. This was mentally and psychologically difficult for me and my family. I decided I would not like anyone to have to experience that.”

Basdeo had to find a job to support his family.

He balanced work and school to ensure his three siblings, mother and father were comfortable.

“That made my life a little unique where my siblings and I, my two brothers, my sister had to support ourselves.”

“My mother, she was a schoolteacher and she retired before I finished secondary school. She had to support my other three siblings in UWI, we all had to find a way to financially support them.”

Basdeo said he worked at a convenient store, then construction and would sometimes sell cedar boards from his father’s agricultural lands. The money from this funded his education.

“I saw a scholarship as an opportunity. So thankfully, I won a national scholarship and I was able to support myself financially with this. My brothers, my sister all stayed close together and supported one another.”

“My father eventually passed away in 2018...I applied to all the RHAs after my internship and was hired at Sangre Grande Hospital.”

This passion to understand mental disease was fuelled after losing a close friend to suicide after developing schizophrenia.

“It is important because regional divisions have a couple of journals, the West Indian Medical Journal and the Caribbean medical journal, and research is not at the forefront, although there's a lot more focus on it now. So via the journal, the bigger Medical Association, we have an avenue to push a message.”

Through the association, Basdeo hopes to raise awareness of mental health and mental diseases.

He also wants to make the association more efficient.

“I think, in the past, we did not collaborate with the necessary stakeholders to have the most effective outreach on blood drives. So that is, when we will partner with other NGOs. Then we get an idea of unity and we feel as though we have support.

So, collaborations will be one of the main things... also to have the members realise that they are an important part of the association, so they have some sort of identity with the association.

“The association has tremendous potential. As a result of this, I was motivated to help save lives working along with members to allow everyone to recognise that they can make a difference.”

Currently, there are 400 medical practitioners registered under the association; Basdeo want to help the membership grow.

“We will outline things which were done well and effectively and look at things that we can improve on. That method of introspection will give the committees and branches a good idea what they can work on for next three months, and then do introspective analysis again. This will help the committees and branches to move forward...This is one method that I found to be effective.

“We have a lot of young physicians who seem eager to do things in the association. So the new generation who are graduating from medical school, we will ensure that we get them on board.”

“We expect to increase a lot of the younger physicians coming on board when we get them involved and educate them on what the association has to offer.”

The association will also work closer with the Medical Board TT and Medical Professionals Association TT in 2023.

“At the end of the day, the functions of the different organisations must be respected...we can work hand in hand in whatever way we can.”