National Mental Health website launched

May 19, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Health’s, Mental Health Unit, on Thursday launched a National Mental Health Website at the Health Emergency Operation Centre (HEOC), in Quamina Street, Georgetown.

The website was created through the National Data Management Authority (NDMA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and the President Youth Advisory Council (PYAC), and will be an online platform that allows citizens across Guyana to access basic information about mental health and other related illnesses. It will also give safe, secure, and confidential mental health support to anyone in need.

During his brief remarks, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, indicated that the launch of the website is one of many projects to come through the initiative of President Irfaan Ali as mental health remains top on the Government’s agenda.

“This is a project that the President was involved in, he recognised one of the challenges in mental health is that quite a few people commit suicide and we want to change that and ensure we reduce those numbers…”, the Minister said.

According to the Minister, since the current administration took office, much work has been done in the area of mental health; this includes the revised legislation governing Mental Health and Suicide Prevention that was passed last year.

He further stated that in the past, Mental Health services were limited to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) in Region Four and National Physiatrist Hospital in Fort Canje in Region Six.

Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony and other health officials at the launch of the National Mental Health Website

The Ministry has expanded its mental health services to Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Four (Demerara – Mahaica) on the East Bank of Demerara and Five (Mahaica – Berbice) will also cover Region Six (East Berbice – Corentyne).

For the hinterland regions, Minister Anthony stated that the MoH is working to have staff placed in those areas periodically.

While touching on some of the training opportunities being offered by the Ministry of Health, Dr. Anthony highlighted that some primary healthcare physicians are currently being trained to be able to recognise mental health illness and offer counselling sessions.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has protocols of how you can interview patients, how you can get information from them, and then how you can utilize that information to assist the patient. The Mental Health unit is currently training primary health care physicians on this methodology and the hope is that all the primary health care centres have skilled personnel working with persons who have mental health vulnerability,” he explained.

The Minister also informed those present that the Ministry is collaborating with Columbia University to complete three projects, and with a Canadian grant, persons can be part of resilience training.

Meanwhile, PYAC member, Mr. Lee Fung-A-Fat, while demonstrating how the website works, indicated that the site can be accessed for any device at any time and persons can have appointments scheduled. In addition, the site also allows persons to video chat with the therapist.

The mental health website can be accessed at https://mentalhealth.gov.gy/.

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Dr. Frank Anthony, governments, Health Emergency Operation Centre (HEOC), Minister of Health, National Data Management Authority (NDMA)

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