A scene from the Marriage Recommitment Ceremony held during the Family Relational Health Seminars and Clinics series.
COLE BAY--Visiting Jamaican counselling psychologist and family relational health therapist Dr. Anthony Gordon and his wife Deloris, a counselling psychologist and special educator, were supported by local physician and surgeon Dr. Luke Mercelina as they sought to raise the bar in the quality of healthcare in St. Maarten.
The longest married couple – 60 years of marriage. They led the processional in the Marriage Recommitment Ceremony held on Saturday, February 25. It was the closing event of the Family Relational Health Seminars and Clinics series held at the Cole Bay SDA Church.
Dr. Anthony and Deloris Gordon, guest presenters in the Family Relational Health Seminars and Clinics series.
From left: Dr. Anthony Gordon, Dr. Luke Mercelina and Pastor Virgil Sams after a courtesy call to Dr. Mercelina at St. Maarten Medical Center.
This occurred during the family relational health seminar and clinic series hosted by the Cole Bay and St. Peters District of Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Churches at the Cole Bay church February 11-25.
“The family is under attack; Lets us fight back!” was the rallying and clarion call of the seminars, which were rated by a wide cross-section of the St. Maarten community – Christians, and non-Christians – as the most comprehensive, up-to-date, medical, psychological, educational and therapeutic programme ever to be conducted on the island, the SDA stated in a press release on Sunday.
According to the release, participants were so convinced that some opined that the programme should have been made an island-wide event, covered by both radio and television so that everyone could have benefitted.
Eighteen seminars, complemented by 24 individual, couples and family group clinics, were conducted by Dr. Gordon assisted by his wife, arming families with knowledge and family relational skills as they meander through the mazes of the complexities of modern life, was the underpinning objective of the programme.
In addition to the seminars and clinic sessions, the Gordons conducted special features to advance the stability of relational health for some main categories of the family.
The thrust of the seminar and clinic series, arranged by Pastor Virgil Sams and his church board members who invited the Gordons, was family members’ dire need to balance their understanding and attitude between physiological health – the state and function of the body, with their psychological health – the state and function of the mind, said the release.
Among the highlights of Gordon’s sessions were his in-depth complementary dichotomy of the working of the brain. He taught that the brain regulates and manages the physiological functions of the body, while working with the stimuli/messages from the five senses to produce, manage and regulate the psychological aspect of our being – the mind.
He emphasised that the mind is the engine of our existence, hence the base theory of his more than 40 years of international practice: All human relationships begin and continue to exist in the mind. He gave a detailed breakdown of that principle so that all could understand.
In his supportive presentation, Dr. Mercelina, from St. Maarten Medical Center, shared some worrying and rising statistics and trends on some of the debilitating medical issues on the island. He bemoaned the state of some life-style diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. He expressed his intent to help prevent the growing number of amputations that he has to be performing on a regular basis.
Mercelina challenged his audience to pay more attention to the tell-tale signs of ill-health and to heed the medical counsel that “early detection saves lives”. The well-respected surgeon urged men to have periodic prostate tests done. He equally called on women to focus on mammography and cervical tests, among others, for both men and women.
He said there are too many deaths from the resulting diseases, which are preventable, but there is too much ignorance of and even callousness to the importance of quality of life in the homes and community at large.
Gordon pointed out that the absence of war does not necessarily mean that there is peace, “so it is that the absence or apparent absence of physiological illnesses or infirmities, does not necessarily mean that there is total health.” He drilled his audience with the knowledge that there are four vital signs of family relational health which he developed in his research and practicing lab over the decades of service.
According to the release, these run parallel with the four vital signs that are checked at triage when one goes to the medical facility for physiological healthcare and which give the attending physician a basic indication of the physiological function of the body.
Gordon’s current family relational health programme is covered in two of his recently published books: Family Relational Health, A Biblical and Psycho-social Priority and FRH Songs of Praise and Bible Verses Paraphrase. Both books are available on Amazon.com.
During a courtesy call on Mercelina at his office by Gordon and Sams, Mercelina pledged his support and that of his colleagues who share his passion for quality healthcare for all St. Maarteners.
All parties expressed the need and call for all influential powers in the society – churches, schools, healthcare facilities, the private and public sectors and government – to join their resources in strengthening social fabrics of the homes as the nucleus of the society, with a view of improving the quality of life for all.
