Special Olympics volunteers push athletes’ health to the forefront

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Dr Jewel Baird (right), medical chairperson for Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago, talks to Special Olympics Jamaica Executive Director Coleridge Howell during a healthy athletes screeening session at Radisson Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on November 8, 2024. (Photo: Sanjay Myers)

Even as good-spirited competition bubbled across different venues in Trinidad and Tobago during the Special Olympics Caribbean Beach Games, there were volunteers behind the scenes helping to ensure athletes were in tip-top shape.

The inaugural beach games, staged from November 8-10, provided the chance for athletes with intellectual disabilities to showcase their skills, compete against their peers, and build relationships with people across the region.

Away from the sporting activities, organisers hosted healthy athletes screening, a family health forum and a Caribbean Initiative Family Engagement Workshop.

The athletes screening, a key facet of the Special Olympics movement, allows access to free health services with emphasis on the eyes, ears, teeth and feet. Athletes are also exposed to physiotherapy and general health awareness.

Dr Jewel Baird, medical chairperson for Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago (SOTT), was integral in the planning and execution of the athletes screening and the family health forum during the games.

For her, it was a “hectic”, but “productive” experience.

“I’m glad… that the athletes were screened, they got referrals for when they get back home for whether they need to see a doctor, or start medication,” Baird told the Jamaica Observer .

“When they come here they get to do their fitness, eye checks, blood pressure, check their vitals and all of that plays into their performances for their countries.”

She underlined the significance of screening the athletes and spreading health awareness to their family members and coaches and to volunteers in the varying Caribbean programmes.

“There are some cases where athletes may not have proper access to health care and sometimes the only access they have is when they go to the different games, internationally, that kind of thing.

“So, it’s very important because sometimes even in our clinics in the public service where we have eye clinics, cardiology clinics, etc, these athletes can sometimes be overlooked and a lot of things are missed,” said the 29-year-old doctor who has been SOTT’s medical chairperson since the 2023 World Summer Games in Berlin, Germany.

“Sometimes it’s not about the access to health care but it’s the quality of health care that they receive, which could be suboptimal compared to other people, which is really not fair. So, it’s really important that they come, we can pick up some things and we can give treatment, we give advice, they can ask any questions they might have.

“It kind of facilitates a conversation where they can continue to take care of themselves and their health. I tell people that they’re not just special needs, they’re athletes, so they need to train like athletes, eat like athletes and their entire mindset needs to be like an athlete,” she explained.

Baird, who attended medical school at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus in Jamaica, said volunteerism within Special Olympics is second nature in her family.

“I’ve been volunteering all my life. My mother is a coach of bocce, and since I was small she brought me to volunteer. I’ve been volunteering since I was six or seven years old. When I did med school in Jamaica — big up, UWI, Mona — and when I came back home that’s when they started utilising me in the medical setting.

“It’s amazing, getting to be a part of this and seeing how the athletes respond. And seeing how excited they are every time is really, really rewarding. I love to see it. I did it [volunteering] and it kind of stuck and it has stuck with my entire family. My dad is also involved and my brother is involved, in different aspects, but we all do our part,” she said.

Over the three days of the Special Olympics Beach Games, athletes participated in aquathlon, beach bocce, beach football, beach cricket, beach volleyball, and open water swimming.

The beach games and related activities were hosted across venues in both the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, and attracted approximately 130 athletes, 70 coaches, and scores of volunteers.

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