THE National Suicide Helpline which the Guyana Police Force launched on August 6 is now emerging as a hotline for other pressing issues, but the specialists answering the phones are up to the challenge.During an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Monday, Caitlin Vieira, addiction specialist and junior psychologist, gave her take on how the complex housing the specialists has been functioning since the launch and the gamut of hotline calls being received.

Vieira said they have found that in most cases the calls to the centre had some element of uniqueness and did not only relate to suicide issues.
According to the specialist, one of the biggest challenges they face is meeting the need for some callers to be temporarily taken out of their distressful environment to facilitate effective counselling.
However, the Guyana Police Force, the lead agency behind the initiative, does not have such a facility and the funds are not readily available to establish a facility for temporary holding of clients in distress.
Vieira cited the case of a pensioner who sought the assistance of the centre and indicated that she was contemplating suicide since her son is an alcoholic and would often abuse her when he is under the influence.

However, counsellors reached out to the woman and took the abusive son away from the home and arranged for him to be kept at a public institution for a few days but subsequently the man returned to his home and the stressful, abusive cycle continued.
Rehab Centre
The specialist told this publication that there is now a dire need for a rehabilitation centre so that persons like the woman’s son can be accommodated until they are fully rehabilitated.
At the moment there is a list of doctors, counsellors, priests, addiction specialists and other professionals working along with the centre, and they are on call should their services be required. Also on board with the programme is the Legal Aid Clinic and the Help and Shelter organisation.
During the interview Vieira also spoke of a woman who has 14 children and was finding it very difficult to take care of them all by herself. She called the centre to have them assist her through counselling and that was immediately done as resource persons were sent to her home.
There are cases in which persons will be asked to visit the centre or the resource persons will go to them. In the case of the woman with the 14 children, the resource persons had to go to her since she had no one to look after the children when she is away from home.
Other issues reflected in the calls were cases in which persons contemplated suicide because of health issues, stemming from such situations as uncertainty about their medical diagnoses, wrong-procedure surgeries or cases where illness brings on overwhelming stress.
Vieira also noted that not every call that goes to the centre sees the involvement of a police rank. She pointed out that there was only one reported case so far in which a rank was forced to intervene after a distress call about a man who was holding a child and a woman at gunpoint in a house. That matter was resolved through counselling and the situation has since improved.
Vieira noted with confidence that the counsellors have been handling themselves exceptionally well and the recently trained personnel have been exercising high levels of initiative in making their interventions a success.

Data collection

The department is already gathering data from calls received so that it can focus training in special areas to achieve an even higher level of counselling efficiency. The department also does follow-up work through calls to persons who had sought its assistance in the past. To date there have been more than 1000 calls that were received by the unit and more than 100 referrals to resource persons who support the work of the centre.
Persons desirous of making contact with the centre for assistance, especially on suicide issues, please call the following telephone numbers: (+592) 223-0001, 223-0009, 600-7896, 623-4444; or E-mail: guyagency@yahoo.com ;BBM PINS: 2BE55649, 2BE56020; Twitter: guyanaagency; WhatsApp: +592-600-7896, 592- 623-4444; Facebook: Guyana Interagency Suicide Prevention Help Line

By Leroy Smith