At a recent health forum, Mel Dupres was surprised to see some new faces.

The homeopath had always found it curious that people were content to accept “the mainstream narrative” instead of asking questions directly related to their individual wellbeing.

Still she was hopeful when she signed up for the weeklong health series presented by the Collective Action Solidarity Trust last month, that other members of the public would also be drawn in by its overarching theme: how to achieve optimal health while protecting the wellbeing of your family in a toxic world.

“We've turned a corner in the pandemic. It is unclear if the emergency powers are still in place, so it's not completely over, but I think what's been happening is that people have just been bringing a health consciousness into the community,” Ms Dupres said.

“So there's an eye on public health at the moment, which is a great thing. It’s really something that was happening on a smaller scale. During the last three years, there have always been voices talking, questioning what was going on. But those voices were silenced. censored. So I think now it's loosening a bit where those voices are starting to be heard.”

Public Health Forum Series 2023 was presented by family practitioner Henry Dowling from June 10 to 14 and featured US paediatric specialist Elizabeth Mumper and US molecular biologist Christine Parks.

Topics included a range of matters related to health including Covid-19 and other vaccinations.

Ms Dupres believes the audience was there largely because there is a general belief that people have a right to question, a belief that many might not have had before.

“People are questioning themselves, their health; they’re questioning governments and regulatory bodies, they’re looking wider … People’s minds have been opened a little bit.

“And maybe there isn’t trust as much in the systems that were in place before because some people have realised that they aren’t trustworthy. The messages that they were given – go to the doctor, don’t go to your doctor; go to the doctor for certain things and only go to the hospital if you have to. That’s all confusing.”

As a care provider she has noticed that her patients are presenting “more complex situations” than in the past.

“The pathology is different. It's more complicated. They’re on a lot more medication. They’re also coming with a slightly different understanding. They’re more engaged in their healing process,” she added.

The Collective Action Solidarity Trust, a non-profit community with a focus on public health, was formed last year. The homeopath is grateful to no longer be working in isolation.

“It means that I'm out there in the community, not as an individual entity, but as a part of a group or collective and that has been hugely beneficial. It means that I have become part of a collective with a shared intention or shared focus.”

Last month’s forums were “packed with information” presented by Dr Mumper and Dr Parks, the two American specialists brought in by Cast.

The pair were able to answer many of the health questions people felt they were not getting straight answers about, Ms Dupres said.

The homeopath said: “In recent years, they’ve been encouraging pregnant women to have the DTaP and they’re starting to show there’s no effectiveness for women having it. So there’s a lot of mixed messaging. And I think what happens [is that people] tend to go along with the most common thinking.

“We’ve sort of handed the power over to the paediatrician or the doctor and we expect them to know it all and guide us accordingly in the same way that we expected the health agencies to guide us accordingly in the global health pandemic. But they chopped and changed a lot.”

Equally interesting was the two-hour session “protecting your family’s health in a toxic world”, where the two doctors “talked about everything from cultural diet and the impact on health, to the toxins that we find in the world that influence our health”.

The breadth of the forum made it useful for anyone interested in learning more about their health, Ms Dupres added.

“There was hardly anything left out and a lot for people to ingest, really. We are planning to do more of this in the future because how else do people learn? They go on to the internet and there’s a mixed bag – of reputable sites, not so reliable sites. So when the source of information is valid and we can bring that to our community …

“[But] I really wonder what motivates people to get more interested in their health? It seems to be a group that comes out to these sorts of events. It seems to be the same people. So I'm wondering what other people are doing. Is health a priority for them? What does it take to shift?”

It is only recently that she has noted a shift in her own practice where people seek her out because she is a homeopath rather than her having to advertise her services to attract clients, Ms Dupres added.

“And then I also come across people in general conversations about homeopathy and people still don't know what that is. There’s still some of that.”

One of the reasons behind the health forum was to get more of the island’s health professionals involved in the conversation.

“Part of the effort in putting on this public health forum series was inviting health professionals to come for a special session to sit around the table with Dr Parks and Dr Mumper. And there were about six people that came that hadn’t attended any of the forums. So it was refreshing to get those people into the room. But where were the doctors? Where was the health department?

“I don’t think that’s the way we work here in Bermuda. I know from patients that come to me, they'll tell me about a specialist that they’ve been to for one part of their body and another one for maybe another part of their body. Their GP has given them this information, and the three [doctors] haven’t had a conversation with each other. So there’s a lack of interconnectedness and from the angle that I come from, promoting and encouraging a holistic point of view, to me, that's essential.”

Her hope is that by talking with The Royal Gazette, the public understand that there is a group that is working on their behalf where perhaps there was not before the pandemic was declared in 2020.

“There is an eye on public health in the community, for the community, for the voices that got shut down, for the people that were uncertain and had nowhere to go. People that were questioning and were confused. They had no choice. It was just listening to the mainstream narrative. And that was wrong,” Ms Dupres said.

“It should be known that there are alternatives. There is another voice. People have to have a choice. How is there only one way? There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to health because everybody is different. So there has to be a conversation. If there’s no conversation, we’re living in a dictatorship.”

• For more information about Collective Action Solidarity Trust, visit https://jointhecast.org/