THA Health Secretary Dr. Faith B.Yisrael will be one of the lead health professionals co-chairing a brainstorming session at a Heat-Health Early Warning for the Caribbean Workshop.

Dr. B.Yisrael will also be a panellist exploring “Stakeholders’ perspectiv es on excessive heat and impacts on health.”

The workshop is organized by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service and the Meteorological Service of Jamaica, as part of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience.

The plan focuses on enhancing capacity for climate adaptation and resilience, primarily assisting countries to adapt and manage the impacts of climate change by 2030.

The workshop brings together climate and health stakeholders from across the Caribbean to assess current capacity and challenges for heat-health early warning systems; develop a framework for a heat-health early warning system; and identify next steps for advancing these systems. Participants include professionals from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services; the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology; Caribbean Public Health Agency; Health Districts; Pan American Health Organization ; World Meteorological Organization RA-IV Regional Office; and NGOs such as the Red Cross, local authorities and community organizations.

Following the workshop, the NOAA will work with core climate and health partners in T&T to develop and use heat wave forecasting tools and integrate them with health vulnerability data, ultimately helping to co-develop the health risks and to issue warnings and alerts when necessary.