LOOK AFTER YOURSELF – The Bhaktivedanta Medical Association launches its first medical camp at the Manor

LOOK AFTER YOURSELF:
The Bhaktivedanta Medical Association (BMA) launches its first medical camp at the Manor

By Dr Malav Bhimpuria

On a crisp autumnal day in late November, visitors to the Manor were blessed by the warm glow of the inaugural BMA medical camp, part of the Devotee Care Festival. The beaming smiles and joyous faces of the devotees was testament to the resounding success of this inspirational event, held in association with Devotee Care UK, Karuna Care, Alzheimer’s UK, Dental Smile and Hertfordshire Health Improvement Service (HHIS).
The BMA’s aim is to deliver holistic care to the ISKCON community and encompasses telemedicine, Ayurveda, dietary advice, emotional health, physical care and yoga. It is essentially “for devotees, by devotees” and this showcase event exemplified the BMA at its best. As the body is an instrument of devotional service, through looking after one’s body the devotee can undertake regular uninterrupted devotional service and facilitating this is where the BMA excels.
Throughout the afternoon, devotees could visit various stalls encompassing mental health (including specialists in learning disabilities and autism), discuss diabetes with consultant diabetologists, interact with Alzheimer’s disease support workers and nurses and discuss End of Life Care where the “devotee care passport” was introduced to assist them with appropriate treatment while on the final stages of the disease journey. Information is crucial to our community and there were also various stands promoting health screening initiatives such as bowel, breast and cervical cancer screening. Women’s health (in particular menopause) and flu vaccination was discussed. A group of enthusiastic dentists also reminded devotees on the importance of dental care and offered free dental check-ups.
Finally, as prevention is a core tenet of the BMA, there was a large screening stall in collaboration with HHIS. Four GPs and two employees from HHIS offered weight and body mass index checks, blood pressure measurement and, one of the most popular elements, ECG analysis with Artificial Intelligence enabled technology to detect heart rhythm abnormalities. More than fifty devotees accessed this service and eleven potential new cases of essential hypertension (high blood pressure) and one new case of atrial fibrillation (an irregular heart rhythm) were detected. Some devotees commented that they would never have thought of having their blood pressure checked, whilst others were relieved to have their heart rhythm analysed as they would not have visited their GPs for this specifically.
The afternoon was also interspersed with a series of informative talks delivered in the Main Hall, some by BMA members on the importance of looking after your health and wellbeing in general and mental health in particular.
As the light faded outside, the Bhaktivedanta Manor continued to be illuminated by the dedication and service of the devotees during its first ever Medical Camp. By Lord Krishna’s mercy, they all felt they had participated in something genuinely innovative and supportive for our community and were looking forward to participating in the next camp very soon.
BMA (Bhaktivedanta Medical Association) provides holistic health care on a virtual platform through telemedicine consultations for allopathic advice (currently in UK South Africa and India, ayurveda (world-wide), emotional and mental health (world-wide) and diet and nutrition.
To avail telemedicine in UK please send an email to make an appointment to any of the telemedicine facilities below:
UK Telemedicine – bma.uktm@gmail.com (for UK devotees only)
Mental Health – karunacare.iskcon/get-help/ (for Worldwide devotees)
Ayurveda – bma.ayurveda@gmail.com (for Worldwide devotees)
BMA also has an educational aspect in form of holistic articles on the website with videos and seminars planned.
Please visit our website for more information: www.bma.health