Dr Elizabeth Ward — Inspired to make a difference

DR Elizabeth Ward likes to think of herself as a data doctor. She believes in the analysis of trends and patterns in the distribution of epidemics to find not just their causes, but also how to eradicate them. With degrees is medicine and epidemiology, she has taken a data-driven approach to assist in curbing numerous public health issues, and for the last 15 years has been using that approach to combat crime and violence in Jamaica.

But years before she became Dr Elizabeth Ward, chairman of the Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA), she was young Elizabeth Grant, one of three children born to a Jamaican father and a Dominican mother. She would move from Trinidad to Jamaica at two years old, and live in various parts of the island to facilitate her father’s job as a vice-principal at Mico, and eventually become a student at Immaculate Conception High.

As part of her community service duties at Immaculate, she would often visit the Salvation Army School for the Blind. She always noticed how appreciative the visually impaired students were of having someone sit and talk with them, and would later realise that this was the beginning of her passion for working with vulnerable groups.

“As a young girl deciding on a career path, I considered how I could use my skills to make life better for my family, my community, my country, and maybe even contribute on an international level. The approach I found was to work in a challenging area, to look and identify solutions, and then to share those solutions effectively,” she told All Woman.

After migrating to Canada to study food science at McGill University in the late 70s, she returned to Jamaica to work in the health sector as a nutritionist. She then went on to study for a degree in medicine at The University of the West Indies, Mona campus.

“I used to weigh babies in St Thomas with community health aides. Some of the babies were suffering from malnutrition — kwashiorkor and marasmus, and I’m happy that we really don’t have those around anymore. I then worked with Dr Ashley on the oral rehydration programme, which was a way of treating babies with diarrhoea. I also worked on HIV, where we still have a long way to go, but we have managed to control the epidemic by large scale coordinated work,” she recalled.

But while focusing on disease prevention and control in the health ministry, and using the data from hospital records to see what ills needed immediate attention, Dr Ward found that crime was the epidemic that was doing the most harm.

“We said, how can we let this epidemic take over the country? We’ve done all these other things, can’t we work more effectively?” she expressed.

She migrated once more to study — this time focusing on epidemiology at the University of London. This branch of medicine deals with the data behind illness — the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health.

“We look at trends and patterns and what we can intervene in to see how we can make a difference,” she explained. “The same way the work goes into the health services — breaking the problem down and working at it consistently, we can work at the different components that contribute to violence and strengthen the prevention and the resilience.”

When the VPA was formed in Jamaica 15 years ago, many people were not sold on the idea of taking an evidence-based public health approach to crime, Dr Ward said.

“When we wanted to count the cases of violence-related injuries, we went to Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) and set up an injury surveillance system. After a year, we went to three other hospitals to do the same. We got a little push back because it seemed like a lot of work, but when we explained that it was working at KPH, they bought into the idea. We then expanded to nine other hospitals.”

Since the 2004 launch, the VPA has been quietly gathering data, identifying patterns, and mobilising vehicles of community intervention — such as NGOs and other groups targeted at social development in specific communities. This June the VPA helped in the tabling of the National Plan of Action for an Integrated Response to Children and Violence before Parliament— a plan to be implemented between 2018 and 2030 with a target of reducing child violence to zero by 2030.

“There is a technical working group of over 25 agencies and other groups that came up with this plan, led by the Child Protection and Family Services Agency. We now need to ensure that it is properly resourced,” she said.

Despite the constant challenges in trying to map and combat the ubiquitous issue of crime in Jamaica, Dr Ward is motivated by even the small changes she is able to help create in communities.

“When you see individual people succeed, and individual groups succeed, it keeps you going,” she smiled. “When you see somewhere like Boys’ Town that has been struggling for years to get the resources to have their community T20 cricket competition, and then now they have two sponsors… seeing what something like that does for the community, how it shows the youth a different path, it’s very encouraging. If we can strengthen more of our young people to do those things then we can combat the violence. We have great people in this country but we’re not allocating enough of our official resources to things like those.”

Dr Ward is an optimist, and she believes that while islandwide peace will not be attained overnight, or maintained without constant work and investment of resources, it is still possible.

“It’s not all going to change in my lifetime. Hopefully it will be better for my children and your children,” she said. “But I think if we pull together more effectively around what works, and engage all the different members, and listen more with respect for each other’s opinions, and work at it over the long term, I think it will take time, but our children are the most important, so we have to protect them.”

When she is not finding ways to combat crime, you might catch Dr Ward on hills planting trees with her husband of nearly 30 years, who she says is her best friend.

“We have a coffee farm in Newcastle; I’m spending more time up there and enjoying the patience that you learn from agriculture. It helps to balance you out, and makes you slow down and engage in another set of skills,” she shared, also highlighting the VPA’s Trees for Peace initiative, which engages people in planting trees as a means of peace-building.

As the mother of two children and a product of a family that moved around often during her childhood, Dr Ward has learned to adapt well to new challenges.

“You don’t have to have all the solutions. Everybody has weaknesses, but you find in other people their strengths that can balance your weaknesses. I learn a lot from my husband and two children,” she said.

At 62, Dr Ward is satisfied in what she has accomplished so far.

“I’ve enjoyed almost every day of life and work. I really enjoy what I do. The ability to travel and learn from other people is a blessing, and I thoroughly enjoy being able to do that while trying to make a difference in other people’s lives,” she smiled.