CCFP PRESIDENT

MESSAGE

World Family Doctor Day  (WFD2025) -19th May 2025

Building Mental Resilience in a Changing World

Marvin Reid (President, Caribbean College of Family Physicians)

World Family Doctor Day has its genesis in 2010 as an initiative of WONCA (World Organization of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practitioners/Family Physician) to provide an opportunity for Family Physicians to highlight the work they do as part of the health system in member countries. The global theme for 2025 is “Building Mental Resilience in a Changing World”.

The Caribbean College of Family Physician is a member of WONCA and is a regional association of family doctors with chapters and direct members in several Caribbean islands and South America. The College is dedicated to the delivery of people-centred primary care that is continuous from cradle to grave, contextual and comprehensive whilst at the same time empowering patients to be partners in managing their health and that of their communities. Within that context, health services provided by members are the foundations of Primary Health Care and include health promotion, health prevention, and curative health services delivered at all stages of life.

This year’s theme speaks to symbiotic relationship between health providers and the community as well as an acknowledgement of the centrifugal forces that a changing world exerts on the mental equilibrium of the health care worker and individuals seeking care .  Indeed, mental disorders are among the top ten leading causes of health loss worldwide and this informs the need to create strategies to build resilience. As health care practitioners, it is important for us to tend to your own needs and feelings, avoid “burn-out” and seek professional care if  we start to feel overwhelmed. By doing this we will be better equipped to attend to our clients’ mental, emotional and physical needs. In short, WFD2025 seeks to bring awareness and conversation around the importance of mental resilience, its’ import and the ingredients to build capacities in individuals and communities.

In closing, I would like to congratulate WONCA and my colleagues of the Caribbean College of Family Physicians, for stimulating a discussion on this issue  and wish that they will have a productive and rewarding World Family Doctor’s Day.