PULL QUOTE: ‘It’s something about Guyana. Within a couple of days being here, it felt like I was here for years. And that’s probably due to the cultural mix; the way Guyanese interact with each other and (with) others. It probably had a lot to do with my heritage as an East Indian’
AN as yet undefined aspect of Guyana charms Canadian Psychiatrist Dr Sonia Chehil, making her feel so much at home whenever she is here. After visiting on an on-and-off basis, Dr Chehil has realised that to fully accomplish all of the things she wants to accomplish in Guyana, she needs to remain on a more permanent basis. So she returned here sometime last month, and for at least the next year, Guyanese will get to enjoy her pleasant company.

Dr Chehil (43) spoke with us in an interview at her Bel Air apartment last Tuesday. She will soon begin private practice, while also working with the Ministry of Health.
Although she sees patients of varying ages, she is specialized in child and adolescent psychiatry; hence, she would mostly see children and youths up to the age of about 19.

She has been working with the Health Ministry in Guyana for the last six years, training general medical officers, nurses, Medexes, among others.  

Before becoming a psychiatrist, she had explored various careers. To see someone with mental health issues have treatment and “recapture” their life is a miracle, she explained, and this is what keep her in the field of psychiatry.
Dr Chehil’s parents are from India, but later moved to Canada, where she was born. She was trained at Dalhousie University in Canada, which has a global psychiatry section that partners with a number of countries and underserved areas in Canada, to assist with the development of mental health services.

The department became engaged with Guyana’s Health Ministry following the 2005 floods, and shortly after, Chehil made her first visit to Guyana; and, as she puts it, “I fell in love with it.”

“It’s something about Guyana. Within a couple of days being here, it felt like I was here for years. And that’s probably due to the cultural mix; the way Guyanese interact with each other and (with) others. It probably had a lot to do with my heritage as an East Indian.

“This has never felt uncomfortable for me. I have never felt like an outsider. I guess it’s the people that make me feel that way. I have worked in many countries, but Guyana has been certainly one of the places that I feel very comfortable and at home,” she expressed.  

When she first came to Guyana, Dr Chehil found that the idea of psychiatry, mental health, talking about disorders like depression, and so on were not common, and that there didn’t seem to be a strong base knowledge in the general public.
“So when we spoke about mental health, people would immediately think about the vagrant in the street,” she said.

Over the years, though, she’s observed that the Ministry of Health has done a lot of work to make mental health something that is better known. “There is a real big and palpable need for mental health now, as there has been a lot of growth in this area.”

Tenacious 
Dr Chehil’s inspiration comes from her father, Dr. Dalip Chehil. He came from very humble beginnings in Punjab, India, and was part of a large family in a farming community when very young. Without the benefit of electricity, he studied a lot with the aid of a lamp.
Dr Chehil is very proud of her father today. She recalled how people in the village laughed as they saw him study, questioning his reason for so doing, since poverty seemed to be his lot in life. They could not fathom the idea that he could improve his circumstances with his studies. Although he had lost both parents, and had to raise his three siblings, Dr Dalip Chehil managed to do his PhD in engineering.

“Somehow, he succeeded; he got scholarships all the way through. My mom joined him, and then they moved to Canada. I look at his story and I see resilience,” Dr Chehil said.

She believes she has some of the strength that is the hallmark of her father, with the “tenacious” personality that she has eventually developed.

“I am very happy with the way my life has turned out. There is a poet in the United States who is one of Oprah Winfrey’s best friends. She said, ‘We did then what we knew how to do; and when we knew better, we did better.’ This quote is so hopeful, and prevents you from being burdened by the things you did in the past,” Dr Chehil said.