GuySuCo staffers complete mental health training
A TEAM of medical personnel and social workers from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) graduated Friday from a four-day training course in mental health.
A closing ceremony, where the graduates were issued their certificates, was held at GuySuCo’s staff club at its La Bonne Intention (LBI) head office.
Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings, related that Guyana is affected by a scourge of mental health issues, particularly in the area of suicide.

“Therefore, for this reason, the government since assuming office is taking strides to address it. Hence, the programme is necessary and timely, especially since GuySuCo is going through a phase at this time,” Dr. Cummings noted.

She added that the aim of this training is to provide non-specialised doctors with the requisite skills and knowledge to better screen patients and provide diagnostic assessments that include treatment and long-term care for persons living with mental ailments.

The members of the team are now skilled in areas of depression psychosis, epilepsy, child and adolescent mental and behavioural disorders, dementia, self-harm suicide and other mental health issues. These conditions are seen in 95 per of mental health cases.

“This programme imbues non-specialised doctors, like yourself, with a confidence that you previously didn’t have in your field of mental health. The strategic aims of this mental health learning schedule are to improve the general practitioners’ skills and confidence, the diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions using evidence-based strategies and tools, increase the physician’s awareness of community mental health resources,” Dr Cummings said.

The minister emphasised that suicide is everybody’s business and pointed out that the ministry’s mental health institute will soon come on board.
“So for those mental issues we don’t want persons going to the ‘mad house’. The acute cases will go to the Georgetown Public Hospital but for chronic cases we’ll have them dealt with at the mental health institute,” she said.

IMPLEMENT SKILLS LEARNT
The minister further encouraged the graduates to put into practice the skills they have garnered and let the drive for excellence be the hallmark of their work.
Director of the Ministry’s Mental Health Unit, Dr. Util Richmond-Thomas, stated that the training is the first mental health training targeting GuySuCo workers.
She explained that the ministry is working very hard to address human resource needs in order to take care of mental health issues nationwide.

“Currently, we have six psychiatrists from a population of over 750,000 persons and that is less than one psychiatrist per 100,000 persons. So there’s a scarce supply of psychiatrists, psychologist and occupational therapists as well; so we have lots of deficiencies in the mental health team,” Dr Richmond-Thomas said.

However, she is optimistic that the fate of mental health issues will change.
She pointed out that currently, there are five persons being trained as psychiatrists and within another three years, four of them will help at the national level.
In addition, she added that the University of Guyana has implemented several psychology programmes, among which is a master’s in psychology, which will begin in 2018.
“These graduates will beef up resources for mental health. In the meantime, we need to address our mental health needs and issues, and that is where you graduates come in. We expect you to go out and practise what you have learnt, work to address the mental health issues,” Dr. Richmond-Thomas charged the graduates.
Meanwhile, GuySuCo’s Human Resources Director Earl John indicated that sugar was never just an industry, but has always been an educational, social and community development, and health institution.

“We started building community centres and manning them with welfare and social welfare officers, who were trained overseas. The absence of community centre activities in the industry doesn’t allow for persons who have their daily frustrations, an outlet to exhale. Therefore, health is fundamental to our production,” he said.

The human resources director noted too that there has always been stress in the industry, but the recent development is a new dispensation geared at taking the industry forward.
The four-day programme was a collaboration between the Ministry of Public Health and GuySuCo and saw participation from estates, including Rose Hall, Skeldon, East Demerara, Wales and Uitvlugt. (DPI)