The three-day Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA) health re­search con­fer­ence aimed at ad­dress­ing press­ing health chal­lenges and seek ac­tion­able so­lu­tions gets un­der­way here on Wednes­day.

The 69th CARPHA Health Re­search Con­fer­ence will be held un­der the theme “Men­tal Health: The Hid­den Pan­dem­ic”, and the or­gan­is­ers said it will present fo­cused ses­sions on men­tal health, non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases, fam­i­ly health, as well as in­fec­tious dis­eases, and nu­tri­tion.

“Last year, in St. Lu­cia the con­fer­ence drew 300 at­ten­dees, and this year an es­ti­mat­ed 400 at­ten­dees is an­tic­i­pat­ed. This re­flects the grow­ing in­ter­est in the con­fer­ence which aims to ad­dress press­ing health chal­lenges and seek ac­tion­able so­lu­tions.

“The com­bi­na­tion of side meet­ings, oral and poster pre­sen­ta­tions, net­work­ing ses­sions and di­a­logue un­der­scores the im­por­tance of pub­lic health re­search to the Caribbean,” said CARPHA’s ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor, Dr. Lisa In­dar.

The con­fer­ence, which is be­ing host­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Bar­ba­dos Min­istry of Health and Well­ness, will al­so fea­ture a pan­el dis­cus­sion ti­tled Break­ing the Stig­ma: Ad­vanc­ing Men­tal Health Care for Chil­dren, Ado­les­cents and Young Adults in the Caribbean.

It will ex­plore ur­gent strate­gies for im­prov­ing the de­tec­tion and treat­ment of men­tal health is­sues among chil­dren, ado­les­cents, and young adults in the Caribbean. Pan­el­lists will ex­am­ine the cul­tur­al stig­mas, sys­temic gaps, and re­source lim­i­ta­tions that hin­der ear­ly di­ag­no­sis and ac­cess to care.

In ad­di­tion to a spe­cial ses­sion on Pan­dem­ic Fund and In­fec­tious Dis­eases, the con­fer­ence will present fo­cused ses­sions on non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases, fam­i­ly health, men­tal health, vec­tor-borne dis­eases, and nu­tri­tion.

Lo­cal, re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies and or­gan­i­sa­tions will dis­play their prod­ucts and ser­vices, in­no­va­tions and pro­grammes.

A to­tal of 87 oral pa­pers and 86 poster pre­sen­ta­tions will high­light re­search find­ings from stu­dents, aca­d­e­mics and health pro­fes­sion­als from the re­gion.

BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos, May 6, CMC

CMC/2025