Govt. crafts vigorous screening plan to combat mental illness

Apr 13, 2017 News

In its fervent quest to combat the scourge of mental illness, Government has crafted a plan that will see more vigorous screening to identify potential mental health and substance abuse patients.

Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence

Policies, programmes and interventions in this regard will be data-driven to help reshape public perception and behaviour towards people with mental health challenges. This disclosure was recently vocalized by Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence, who pointed out that “these will also help to re-orient our employers making them more responsive towards these employees and eventually removing any form of stigma and discrimination that may exist in the workplace.”
Nine out of 10 persons with mental health illness have experienced some form of stigma and discrimination. This state of affairs has resulted in many patients opting to not seek medical attention until their condition becomes severe.
“I understand your fear about this particular disease and the likely pain you might experience because of stigma and discrimination. I know the temptation many of us experience to hide our family members away from the glare of an unfriendly environment because of the stigma, we will have to endure if we take our family or friend for treatment at a mental health facility,” said Minister Lawrence.
The issue of stigma and discrimination, the Minister believes, is one that stems, not necessarily from malice or a desire to be unkind, but to communication barriers. She asserted that “this challenge must be eliminated especially if it exists among those in the public health sector.”
Her remarks came even as World Health Day 2017 [April 7] was commemorated.
World Health Day this year focused on depression and the need for persons to be encouraged to ‘talk’ about the disease. “Guyanese must muster the courage to talk openly about this rather than whisper in secret about the challenges faced by our relatives and friends. Let me be candid with you: Mental illnesses are very common and mental illnesses can be treated,” asserted Minister Lawrence.
However, each year, on a global scale, approximately 15 to 20 percent of a population will suffer some form of mental illness. Using this international figure, Minister Lawrence said that it can be estimated that in Guyana’s current population that between some 112,500 to 150,000 persons are likely to suffer from some form of depression.
Globally, too, one out of every five children or adolescent, that is 20 percent, has a mental health issues. “Clearly, one is not too young or too old to have a mental health problem,” said Minister Lawrence. “A patient with a mental-health problem is not insane or mad. This misunderstanding has made life even more difficult for patients and those who endeavour to help them.”
Even as she reiterated the need for a conscious effort to be made to make things easier for its mental health patients and their support system, Minister Lawrence questioned, “Why should their families and caregivers too face unjust treatment because of members of our society? The time has come for us to break the silence about the inhumane treatment of our mental health patients and their care-givers.”
She added, “We need to begin talking openly about illnesses such as depression because this form of mental ailment affects our ability at home, at work and in our learning institutions.”
Since mental health problems do not have to be permanent, Minister Lawrence said, “You can recover and live a full and productive life once you are treated.”
According to the Minister, the time is opportune for us to “grasp the opportunity to be educated about mental health challenges and the complications faced by our patients. From today, let us speak with each other and let us emphasize with one another in the common struggle to celebrate the humanity of our mental-health patients. They deserve it.”
She continued, “We can ill-afford our patients losing hope; we can ill-afford our care-givers becoming discouraged in the middle of the race; and most importantly, we can ill-afford our public health practitioners becoming disillusioned in their efforts to nurse our mental-health patients back to perfect health.”