Police officers take part in health screening exercise |24 September 2022

As part of celebrations to mark Seychelles Police Day which coincided with the International Peace Day on Wednesday September 21, 2022, the Occupational Health and Safety Unit of the Seychelles Police in collaboration with the Nutrition Unit in the Ministry of Health, organised a health screening yesterday for all police officers and civilian staff around Mahé.

The health screening which was held at the Central Police Station conference room, Victoria, was to help the officers and civilian staff to counter obesity in relation to their diet.

The screening exercise also included the detection of hypertension and diabetes and an encouragement for more physical exercises.

The head of the Occupational Health and Safety Unit of the Seychelles Police, Sergeant Jeannine Maria, a nurse by profession, said that they wanted to run various health programmes with the Ministry of Health on obesity, hypertension, diabetes, communicable diseases among other diseases for police officers.

She stated that the screening obesity programme with the nutrition unit was because many among the police officers are slightly or fully overweight.

She added that as many of the officers eat junk food and drink sweet beverages that contribute to obesity, the programmes will help them to change their diet and to lead a healthy lifestyle.

“We want to put more emphasis on a healthy lifestyle, through good dieting and exercises, to our police officers,” said Sergeant Maria, who noted that a similar programme will also be held later for police officers on Praslin and La Digue.

In the first phase of the programme yesterday, the officers were screened for hypertension, diabetes, height, weight and their Body Mass Index (BMI) which is the measure of body fat based on height and weight. They also had one on one sessions with the nutritionists on their diets and also for possible appointments for further follow ups at the hospital.  

Sub Inspector Lilianne Quatre, who participated in the screening, said the test was a good initiative for police officers to know if they have diseases affecting their health taking into account that some who do not fall sick and by consequence do not go to health centres, are not aware they have such diseases that are affecting their health.

The police also organised a health talk for male police officers on Wednesday on prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction.

The accompanying photos show some highlights of the screening exercise.

Text & photos by Patrick Joubert