New suicide gatekeepers engaged from Hindu community
GUYANA continued its multi-dimensional response to suicide last Saturday when some 30 persons from the Hindu community were engaged in the Gatekeepers Programme at Leonora Secondary School, West Coast Demerara.
Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy emphasised the importance of their contribution and pointed out that the availability of human resources is a main challenge.
The programme is one of the main interventions in the related strategy, the others including a support hotline, the follow-back methodology, provision of support services to vulnerable people, training health workers and other stakeholders and public awareness.
Ramsammy told the newcomers that it has been ongoing for the past two years and many strides are being made locally to ensure that the sector can boast better trained health professionals.
“The successes we have had, to date, are a result of the work we have been doing,” he said, recalling that the Ministry completed its first National Suicide Prevention Strategy in 2001. It, subsequently, underwent revision and highlighted primary areas for prevention intervention.
Fielding questions from the gathering, among them what was being done in terms of opportunities for overseas training to bolster the capabilities of the health professionals, Ramsammy said some have been on overseas scholarships to further their studies but capacity is being developed locally so that more persons can benefit.
He expressed the view that the sector gains more value for money if the capacity is developed in the country to train more people, rather than sending only one person abroad.
Ramsammy said other moves being made include a nurses’ psychiatric programme, which will equip them, in 12 months, to work at health centres as first responders.
He said the aim is to have 100 first responders in 10 years to serve at the National Psychiatric Hospital, as well as at the primary health care sites.

Specialists

Additionally, the University of Guyana (UG) currently has a three years Master’s Programme in Mental Health, to produce specialists for treating mental illness.
Ramsammy said those initiatives are to fill the gap as it relates to professional human resource capacity.
“We are putting in mechanisms to build the professional capacity we need. In its own way, it is an anti-suicide programme, because the group of people who would commit suicide because of mental illness will now have the help they need,” he posited.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that Guyana averages about 180 suicide deaths per year, with 500 attempts. The incidence ranged from 150 to 200 annually between 2003 an 2007. The highest numbers are consistently reported from Regions Four (Demerara/Mahaica) and Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) as compared to the rest of the country.
Ramsammy said Saturday’s gatekeepers session was one of several planned for Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara) but Regions Four (Demerara/Mahaica), Six and 10 (Upper Demerara/Berbice) are targeted, too.
In an invited comment, Mr. Robert Persaud, a social worker with the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH), said the engagement of the Hindu community is the first of a planned series.
“We are hoping to involve the Christian and Muslim communities soon, so a team from the hospital, working with the central Ministry of Health, will make the interventions at the community level,” he said.
Suicide is a complex public health scourge but the Health Ministry is looking to reduce the rate and the hotline telephone numbers for those needing support are 226-1818 and 226-1819.