Mental Health is a branch of medicine to which greater attention is being paid today.

This is not surprising as it is only from the 19th century with the development of Psychology and Psychiatry that Mental Health began to be seriously accepted as a discipline comparable to other disciplines of medicine.

In former times, mentally ill persons usually became the responsibility of religion or individual healers such as shamans and the treatments ranged from beating the devil out of the patient, exorcism, herbal medicines and exercises, to having the patients attend special religious sessions.

In Guyana, there still exists some churches where faith healing of mental illness is practiced and among the most well-known are the Kali Mai temples which attract multi-religious, multi-racial mental health sufferers.

In Guyana, the first “asylum” for the mentally ill was established in the 1850’s and long remained a place where only basic treatment was given. There was one doctor and a few nurses and the administering of tranquilizers was one of the main treatments.

The fact is that the society as a whole regarded mental illness as a curse and mental sufferers were locked away or merely abandoned and families felt intense shame in having a mentally ill relative.

All mentally ill persons were termed “mad”, which term implied an intense degree of schizophrenia and they were ignored or marginalized by the family. Even older members of families who may have been professionals like teachers or lawyers and have begun to suffer from memory-loss (Alzheimer) are termed “dotish” and are ignored.

Families are completely uninformed as to mental illness and its symptoms and do not know what to do if a member of the family is afflicted. They become distraught and unable to act and no help is rendered to the mentally ill person who would accordingly deteriorate.

In addition, this ignorance of what mental illness is or what characterizes it has led to the ostracism and intense stigmatization and discrimination against sufferers which in turn result in sufferers and their families avoid seeking treatment.

October is regarded as the month when special focus is given to mental health since it is associated with the World Health Organization designation of 10th October as World Mental Health Day.

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Day is “Dignity in Mental Health – Psychological and Mental Health First-aid for all.”

The Ministry of Public Health has been taking some appropriate and valuable action in addressing the problem. They have published a Mental Health Plan 2015 – 2020 and among the chief programes in it are the Integration of Mental Health into Primary Care, Psycho Geriatric clinic, Drug and Alchohol Prevention programe, Suicide Prevention programes, and extending the service to all Regions.

Most important, a Mental Health Institute will be established to provide training and clinical experience. To avoid these programes from becoming a mere wish list, sufficient nurses and doctors trained in the discipline must be recruited and integrated in the programes.

One of the most important factors in any mental health thrust is the education of Guyanese Society and the family in particular as to what is mental health and mental ailment, its clinical treatment and how the family could deal with a member who may be afflicted.

Guyanese society is almost completely ignorant of what are mental ailments and that there are modern treatments for them. This ignorance leads to fear, prejudice, and intense stigmatization and discrimination which if not tempered or exorcised could defeat all efforts and mental health programes of the Public Health Ministry.

It is therefore important to develop an effective programe of Education. The successful AIDS educational programe could provide something of a template.

Education of the family as to mental ailments and treatments will have to begin in the schools. Families should be taught how to recognize the symptoms of mental illness and how to deal with them. If a member of a family is attacked by mental illness, the other members of the family are puzzled and do not know what to do and feel entirely helpless. Education would prevent such a scenario.

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Day is “Psychological and Mental Health First-aid for All” and such First-aid could be in the form of Education and could immediately be given to a number of families in the various Regions as a pilot project.