Health Ministry to invest over $300M in mental health

Jun 02, 2009 News

In an effort to improve mental health capacity in Guyana, the Ministry of Health with the support of various partners, will be investing more than $300 million to deal with the issue of mental health in Guyana.

This is according to Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who noted that the budget for mental health in Guyana, has now become a real one. At the launching of a week of activities to deal with the mental health issues in the country, including suicide, Minister Ramsammy said that in the past, small amounts of money used to be budgeted for mental health, but for the first time in the history of Guyana, mental health has become a line item in the budget.

From yesterday, the Ministry joined its efforts with Dalhousie University in Canada, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) in intensifying its programmes to build the Mental Health capacity in Guyana.

“For the first time, we are addressing the human resource issue in mental health, as it has always benefited from human resource that were assigned to them from other section of the health sector. But now, we are starting to build a cadre within the health human resource that is dedicated to mental health that has the specific training for mental health,” Minister Ramsammy said. Currently, there are 115 workers in the mental health sector.

According to the Health Minister, the Ministry has formulated a publicly guaranteed package of mental health services that define what is available at every level of the health care system.

There are now more than 22 medications that are available at different levels of the health care system, as Psychotropic medicines are available since it is now a priority area in the ministry of health’s strategic plan.

Minister Ramsammy said that every suicide attempt in Guyana, will be monitored, and the Ministry will work along with the affected families and the immediate community members, as it would help the Ministry to put into place community programmes, that will help people deal with the various issues that are drivers of the problem.

He explained that between the five to 24-year age group, suicide is the number one cause of death, and it contributes to 17 per cent of the deaths within the same age group, while HIV at this time contributes only nine per cent to the deaths. The Health Minister, added that road traffic accidents represent the second largest cause of death, while HIV is the number three cause of death in the same age group.

It was noted that between five and 44, suicide now equals HIV as the number one cause of death as both contribute 17 per cent to the number of deaths.

“In a country where our life expectancy is now 70, can you imagine if we remove these three major causes of death among young people, our life expectancy would be equal to the United States of America?”

Meanwhile, it was also noted that there are more than 20,000 Guyanese adults, who in one form or another suffer from substance abuse, while approximately three to five per cent of the adult population, experience substance abuse where they need help. The majority being alcohol abuse.

In Guyana, less than five per cent of the adult population, at least tried and have problems with cocaine and marijuana, but according to Minister Ramsammy, these figures are likely to change as the Ministry’s surveillance develops.

Country Representative of PAHO, Dr. Kathleen Israel, underscored the point that mental disorders are treatable, and suicide is preventable. She explained that in some form or fashion, everyone has had some mental health concern, even though these maybe very mild, but could escalate and be overcome without any sort of treatment.

“The important thing to note, is that while mental health has not had the attention it deserves, and mental health and illness, drug use and abuse are often stigmatized, the reality is, that they are important public health issues, and they affect the people we know and care about almost on a daily basis.”

During the week of activities, there will be an intense four day legislation drafting for Mental Health, with the aim to sensitize key stakeholders on the importance of mental health legislation, to establish a working group to assist with the drafting of new mental health legislation, and to complete a background paper of existing human rights and other relevant legislations, and to inform the development of modern mental health legislation.

There will also be a substance abuse training workshop, in Structure Relapse Prevention and Motivational Interviewing, which aims to further develop and strengthen an integrated, comprehensive, evidence-based treatment and rehabilitation programme.

(Fareeza Haniff)