United States-based medical practitioner Dr Errol Bryce has charged the 2022 graduating class at Northern Caribbean University (NCU) to make the world better through their love, knowledge and professionalism as well as to help the Church grow and achieve its goals of prosperity and peace in the world. He was the guest speaker at the first of two Commencement ceremonies held August 14, 2022 under the theme Faith Fuelled: Charting the Unknown. In addition to being guest speaker, Dr Bryce also received the conferral documents of his late grandmother, Caroline Reece, on whom NCU conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
Dr Bryce believes that the graduates of August 2022 have the solutions and skills to rid Jamaica of what he refers to as “toxic stress”. He believes “toxic stress” and the lack of “therapeutic love relationships” in the society are at the heart of ill health and crime in Jamaica and the world.
While stating that stress was a normal fact of life, Dr Bryce warned that “toxic stress” was a real and dangerous phenomenon. He posited that toxic stress was a public health crisis and should be treated as such, for it was at the heart of many physical, emotional-psychological and crime-violence related problems in Jamaica and globally.
Dr Bryce expressed confidence in the graduates that NCU was producing, declaring that they were “best-faced” and best-positioned to handle the toxic stress crisis due to their training at one of the few tertiary institutions in the world that allows students to learn about therapeutic love and how to apply it practically in all areas of life and professional work. He recommended NCU graduates to employers.
Bryce, who is a doctor of internal medicine, went on to explain and demonstrate the relationship between the prefrontal cortex of the brain and the body’s lymphatic system and the impact of therapeutic love and interaction on the brain and body. He then charged the graduates, the Church and the government to find tangible ways to develop therapeutic relationships and demonstrate the love that results from the same.
He argued that lifestyle reform, as guided by the Seventh-day Adventist Health Message, was the way to go for individuals, medical doctors and the government in controlling and eliminating toxic stress and the illnesses, crime and violence that result from it. He also suggested that the health costs to the Jamaican people and government can be significantly reduced through lifestyle adjustments for optimal health.
From a national policy perspective, Dr Bryce appealed to the Jamaican prime minister and the governor general to enact the following measures:
- The scheduling of every Saturday and Sunday, from 9:00-10:00 a.m. to be a national “Love-a-Child Hour”.
- The demonstration of true love and forgiveness nationally. One example would be by forgiving the cricketer Lawrence Rowe for leading a team to South Africa in the 1980s during the Apartheid period, and go further by naming Sabina Park after him.
- The mandate for all doctors to earn three credits of lifestyle medicine and one credit of Continuing Medical Education (CME) per year.
In the end, Dr Bryce concluded that love, forgiveness and lifestyle-driven health will help Jamaica to overcome its crime and violence issues, caused by toxic stress.
Written by Shannette Smith/CCMPR
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