Clinical psychologist wants country’s mental health services decentralized

Aug 01, 2016 News

– appalled that psychiatrist only visits Linden Hospital Complex once a month

By Enid Joaquin

Dr. Liverpool with Linda Felix Johnson (left) and co-founder of OMAT

“Women are more prone to mental illness”, so says Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Errol Liverpool.

Quizzed about the reason for this, Dr. Liverpool posited that generally the woman is under more pressure.

He based his theory on observances while in graduate school.

“If you are a female and you are in graduate school, you got a husband and you have children, and I’m a male and I’m in graduate school and I have a wife and I have children-

In graduate school, I’m a full time student, a part time father and a part time husband.

For you, you’ll be a full time student, a full time mother and a full time wife. More is expected from women.

Women are expected to be superwomen, so they are usually under more stress.”

He also noted that women are usually deemed as less valuable, compared to men in the job market, which often leads to depression.

Dr. Errol Liverpool is an overseas based Guyanese, currently residing in Toronto, Canada.

But the Clinical Psychologist and pastor has not forgotten his Guyanese roots.

This year, Dr. Liverpool made his first visit to Linden in his capacity as Psychologist with the Overseas Medical Team (OMAT). It was his third visit back home.

In an exclusive interview, Dr. Liverpool candidly reflected on his feelings on mental health and attitudes towards those afflicted with such a condition.

“You know it’s amazing, people don’t see the mentally ill as someone that’s suffering from a disease, just like any other disease. People are ashamed to acknowledge their relatives that are mentally ill. They hide them away or disown them, but these people need help just as much as the person suffering from cancer, diabetes, hypertension or any other disease. Unfortunately very little or sometimes no attention is paid to these people.”

Dr. Liverpool started out as a pastor, dealing with his congregation’s spiritual “health”, but later realized that he wanted to help people in more tangible ways.

“I began my training as a Minister. I pastored for a number of years in Toronto, Canada, and there was this lady, in one of the churches, that used to get up and shout out, and the Deacons would take her out the church, and after a while it dawned on me that she was mentally ill. She was suffering from what is known as a verbal tic, and what that does is uncontrollable- she would talk to herself, which meant that she had too much serotonin in her brain, and that would result in racing thoughts.

We have about fifteen chemicals that control mood, but the three main ones are Dopamine which makes us feel good, then there is Serotonin and Norepinephanne and what happens is that these must exist in equilibrium- they must be in balance, if they are out of balance they affect our mood.

“Well, this woman was mentally ill, and what was being done was that the church was trying to pray the problem away.”

Dr. Liverpool reflected that at that time the church was not very accepting of anything called Psychology, as there was the thought that one was messing with people’s minds.

“Even today when you tell people that you are a Psychologist, they tell you, well don’t read my mind. Well it is nothing like that, we have to do assessment to find out what’s going on in your life.”

He said that was what forced him to go back to school to study psychology and today he has been in that field for thirty one years. In alluding to some of the common diseases that make up mental illness Dr. Liverpool highlighted what it is to be bipolar.

“Here is what we do know, If we take a pole- why, it has two ends-, so in a bipolar person, at ten in the morning would be very happy then without warning at eleven you can’t deal with that person- in Guyana we say that person is moody, but this is not just being moody, this person has some problems of chemical imbalances in the brain that cause them to just change like that.

Even children may have bipolar disorder, Dr Liverpool said.

Not satisfied

In alluding to the services available for the mentally ill at the Linden Hospital Complex, where a Psychiatrist visits once per month, Dr. Liverpool said that he is not satisfied.

“What we have here is very limited resources, towards the mentally ill.

“One of the things I would want to see happen would be the decentralization of mental health services.”

To say that having one Psychologist coming here once per month is inadequate- is an understatement!”

He said that a lot more needs to be done to alleviate the suffering of the mentally ill, and added that he is prepared to seek ways to assist.