NIHERST: Caribbean Icons in STI

Sir Kenneth describing the work of the
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine

Sir Kenneth Standard, Professor Emeritus, was the pioneer of the teaching and training in public health programmes in the Caribbean, through the University of the West Indies at which he worked for over forty years. Beginning at the Division of Social and Preventative Medicine at Mona, Jamaica in 1961, Professor Standard was key to the transformation of this Division to a Department, and to the teaching of undergraduate students, providing exposure to Community Medicine in their curriculum. Further, he was also instrumental in the establishment of programmes that provided for the training of Community Health Aides that were incorporated into the Ministry of Health in Jamaica. He also initiated a postgraduate one-year Diploma in Public Health for physicians and a postgraduate Diploma in Community Health for non-physicians.

Kenneth Standard was born in Barbados on 8th December 1920. He attended Harrison College, one of the top boys’ schools on the island, and won a Senior 1st Grade Scholarship in his final year. Standard taught at Lynch’s Secondary School in Barbados for eight years, becoming headmaster in his last year there. He was then notified by telegram that he was selected to join the first batch of 33 medical students of the new University College of the West Indies (UCWI) in Mona, Jamaica. In 1955 he graduated with his medical degree and became a Medical House Officer at the University College Hospital. He attended the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh on a PAHO/WHO Fellowship and attained his M. Sc. in Public Health in 1959. In 1962, he obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of London, for research on child nutrition in Jamaica and Barbados. He was elevated to the post of Professor in 1968.

Professor Standard placed high importance on community health, and considered the medical officers of health as key officers in the maintenance of the primary health care of a country. He worked in Barbados in this capacity from 1958 to 1961. It was in 1961 that Professor Standard left his native Barbados to take up the post of Lecturer at Mona in the Department of Social and Preventative Medicine. He became head of department in 1966, and became a citizen of Jamaica in 1973. The health aides programme which first began in August Town, Jamaica, was an initiative of Professor Standard, in which volunteer doctors and nurses provided short training courses in health care to groups of citizens. He also established a clinic at Mona, run by medical students of the UWI to service citizens of the communities of August Town and Bedward. This pilot programme attracted the attention of Cornell University, which sent students annually to Jamaica to observe how this programme worked. Professor Standard also developed a Manual for Community Health Workers which, today, is considered the ‘bible’ of social and preventative medicine.

While at the UWI, Professor Standard made contributions both at the regional and international level, as a consultant to the World Health Organization / Pan American Health Organization. He was the Chairman of the WHO Task Force on Research in Health Education in Family Health (1978), and was a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Public Health Administration (from 1969). He was made a Commander of the Order of Distinction by the Government of Jamaica in 1976, and was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen in 1982 in recognition of invaluable work in public health. In 2002, the Pan American Health Organization named him a “Public Health Hero of the Americas”.

This Icon is also featured in the Video Documentary and Kids’ Booklet :

Sources:

Interview with Dr. Aileen Standard-Goldson, Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI Mona

Statement from the Secretary-General of CARICOM on the passing of Sir Kenneth Standard.

Article in the Jamaica Observer, Wednesday 05 August 2004.

Tribute to Sir Kenneth Standard, Public Relations Office, UWI Mona

Selected Publications:

Standard, K.L. (2002) My journey in public health in the Caribbean. Pan American Journal of Public Health October 2002, Vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 223-226(4)

Desai, P., Standard, K.L., Miall, W.E. (1970) Socio-economic and cultural influences on child growth in rural Jamaica. Journal of Biosocial Science 2:133-143.

Standard KL, Desai P, Miall WE. (1969) A longitudinal study of child growth in a rural community in Jamaica. Journal of Biosocial Science 1(2): 153-176.

Fodor, J., Miall, W.E., Standard, K.L., Fejfar, Z and Stuart, K.L. (1964) Myocardial disease in a rural population in Jamaica. Bulletin of the World Health Organisation. 31: 321-335.

Harrison College, Barbados

University College of the West Indies – Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Lond./UCWI 1955

Kenneth Livingstone Standard - Public Health Pioneer

Sources:

Kenneth Livingstone Standard
- Public Health Pioneer