Mental Health

Oct 14, 2025 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Last week, the world paused to observe World Mental Health Day, under the theme “Access to Services- Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies”

It is a powerful reminder that good health is incomplete without mental well-being yet in Guyana, that truth continues to be ignored in both our homes and our halls of power. The World Health Organisation (WHO), in its message, emphasised that mental health care must not be treated as a privilege for the few. Around the world, crises from wars and pandemics to natural disasters and personal tragedies are driving millions into psychological distress. One in every five people in humanitarian settings suffers from a mental health condition. The WHO urges governments, schools, social services, and communities to come together to protect those most at risk. But in Guyana, despite the rising tide of awareness, our national response remains shallow and fragmented.

One disorder that demands more attention and which this newspaper has repeatedly highlighted is depression. Too often dismissed with casual indifference, depression is not just “feeling down.” It is a deep neurological imbalance, where the brain’s chemistry fails to support the production of hope and motivation. Left untreated, it becomes a thief of ambition, productivity, and sometimes, life itself.

At its worst, depression is silent and invisible, but devastating in its reach. It eats away at the spirit of individuals, families, and entire communities. It is not an exaggeration to say that a nation weighed down by untreated depression cannot progress, no matter how many highways it builds or how much oil it extracts. Development without well-being is an illusion.

For decades, governments have obsessed over GDP figures, infrastructure, and foreign investment. Yet few have dared to treat mental health as a core development issue. The utilitarian ideal “the greatest good for the greatest number” cannot be realised if happiness, stability, and emotional wellness are absent. How can we talk about national prosperity when our people are breaking down quietly in their homes, workplaces, and schools?

Depression has also been the silent engine behind Guyana’s other social crises: alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, and suicide. We remain among the world’s highest per capita suicide rates, and yet the conversation barely moves beyond condolences and promises. Stigma continues to be one of the biggest barriers. Those suffering are often dismissed as “weak” or “mad,” and told to “pray harder” or “toughen up.” Many end up believing that label, internalising failure, and surrendering to despair.

Even where depression is diagnosed, treatment often stalls. Mental health care in Guyana is still grossly under-resourced. Clinics are understaffed, psychiatric drugs are sporadically available, and counselling services are either inaccessible or unaffordable to most. We cannot continue to treat mental health as an afterthought in our health budget. Every dollar invested in prevention and early intervention saves many more in productivity losses, crime, and long-term care.

The Ministry of Health has acknowledged the scale of the problem and has made some efforts among them: community outreach, training of health workers, and decentralisation of mental health services. But the system still functions as though mental illness exists on the fringe of “real medicine.” What is urgently needed is a multi-disciplinary approach where psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and occupational therapists collaborate to address both the biological and social roots of the illness.

Government alone cannot shoulder this task. Civil society must be mobilised. Churches, schools, unions, and private employers all have a duty to normalise mental health conversations and support those struggling. The workplace, in particular, has become a new frontier for mental health battles — where pressure, exploitation, and silence take their toll. No employer should believe productivity can thrive when workers are mentally broken. Mental health is not a luxury, nor is it a side issue. It is a universal human right, as this year’s World Mental Health Day reminds us. It must be treated with the same urgency and respect as clean water, housing, and education.

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Catastrophes, good health, mental health, WHO, World Mental Health Day

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