A Visit to My Neighbor
One of my trips this winter was to the country of Mexico where I spoke about primary Prevention at their 3rd International
Congress on Intellectual Disability. I concluded that there is a strong interest in knowledge that may lead to preventing damage to their children before it actually happens. This was clearly voiced during some of the early sessions regarding Intellectual Disability. Most of those persons who voiced such opinion were from rural areas.
The highlight of my visit to Mexico was a side trip to the state of Toluca, which is southwest of Mexico City. I had been offered the opportunity to accompany a member of the World Health Organization on a tour of selected health facilities, and to meet with the leadership of the Toluca state health management team. It was a very informative day and I met a woman who was clearly interested in Prevention.
The prevention advocate within the Toluca management team was THE person responsible for training the people who actually worked on the front lines – the doctors, the nurses, the social workers and others who interacted with families in the communities.
In response to my inquiry about the most critical problem they faced, I was not surprised to learn that they were finding two or three times as many birth defects in the children born to working mothers employed in various agricultural roles. She strongly felt that pesticides were causing these birth defects, but she did not have the data to prove it.
In Mexico City, I met the Subdirector of Attention to Persons with Disabilities. Earlier, she had attended my presentation regarding prevention and was quite interested in learning more detail. I was soon introduced to the top boss in Mexico City’s Department of Health whom also expressed a strong interest in primary prevention.
Back to Issue - March/April
2000
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