– as more persons access mental health treatment

SOME five years ago, Guyana was labelled as the suicide capital of the world but in recent years, more persons have been accessing mental health treatment with some reduction in the stigma attached to field.

As the world celebrates World Mental Health Day today, Senior Psychologist within the Mental Health Unit of the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Balogun Osunbiyi said all stakeholders must work together to ensure these achievements continue.
Since coming on stream in 2016, much of the unit’s programmes and awareness campaigns have been bearing fruit.

This is possible as systematic problems are continuously being reviewed, thereby providing greater access, treatment and quality of service to mental health patients.
Dr. Osunbiyi said that this is evident in the country’s suicide rate, which can be an end result of untreated mental illness, dropping from 44.2 per cent per 100,000 people in 2012 to 24.6 per cent per 100,000 persons in recent years.

While this is not the eventual end goal, he added that the Mental Health Unit is committed to seeing Guyana doing even better as its various programmes robustly work to address the still prevalent stigma attached.

“There is some decrease in the intensity of stigma. Our awareness campaigns, brochures; it’s not just mental health relating to insanity but we target substance issues, we target alcohol issues and their correlation to mental illnesses. Because of the various programmes that are running simultaneously, that is why we are seeing this drop in the actual suicide rate,” he said.

In fact, examining the Guyana Inter-Agency Suicide Prevention Helpline’s statistics for 2017, Dr. Osunbiyi stated that while there has been an increase in persons calling, fewer persons are calling with the intention of committing suicide.

“We see that two things are happening: persons are more aware and they also are more aware that help is available,” Dr. Osunbiyi explained.

Nonetheless, he stated that stigma remains an “issue of ignorance” and one that is as a result of a lack of awareness and understanding of mental health.

“Any illness of any sort, anyone should be able to access treatment or care without being labelled. But the labelling comes when people are ignorant or unaware of exactly what that illness means. So we have factored that into our work and it’s a part of our strategic learning action to deal with education awareness which we call psychosocial education,” Dr. Osunbiyi added.

Yet, still contributing to stigma in the Caribbean are myths and one of the most common examples Dr. Osunbiyi pointed out, is the case where persons equate mental illness with being ‘mad’.

“Less than 10 per cent of the work I do as a senior psychologist here is about insanity. Psychology and psychiatry is not about treating ‘mad’ people, it’s about helping others who find themselves challenged, vulnerable or at-risk to find answers or options or solutions to whatever it is they’re confronted by,” Dr. Osunbiyi corrected.

PTSD
Although still a taboo subject, one of the most common mental disorders that is still under addressed in the Caribbean is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which can be developed by anyone after a range of life-threatening events.

“One of the reasons why we don’t find that to be so prevalent in Guyana is because we haven’t fought wars, we haven’t had revolutions or armed internal conflicts… however, one can have PTSD coming out of any other traumatic event like an accident, armed bandits invading your home at two in the morning, that can leave you traumatised and that also can be treated as PTSD, especially if it’s prolonged and you’re not getting rid of it,” he explained.

For these sorts of mental disorders, Dr. Osunbiyi strongly recommends that persons seek help in the form of psychotherapy which can be accessed at any hospital and where this is not available, a referral will be made.

“There is either a psychiatrist, a psychologist or a mental health social worker. In some are all three and in other areas, there are two and in some areas you find one. “But the system [is] set up in such a way that if you go, let’s say, to a health centre and your condition is of that complexity that cannot be fully addressed at that health centre, within minutes a referral is made for a specialist to attend to you for your condition.”

TRAINING
This month, working in collaboration with a team from the United Kingdom (UK), 36 local health practitioners will be trained in management of anxiety and depression. The training begins on October 29 and ends on November 9.

The training will take place in Regions Three, Five and Six.
Added to this, before the end of the next month, some 50 doctors and health care workers in Regions Two and Six will be trained in the mental health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP).

These upcoming initiatives will help the unit to meet its goal of 300 trained personnel before the end of 2018,during which over 200 have been trained thus far.
Other ongoing programmes include the Self-Harm Surveillance Programme which is being conducted in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and 10 thus far, targeting persons who are known to practise both suicidal and non-suicidal self-harm.

The unit also works along with religious denominations to train their leaders to assist in their communities through the Problem Management Plus (PM+) programme.
The programme was made possible through collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and Loma Linda University.

In 2019, the Mental Health Unit will be making an extra effort to provide greater services to hinterland areas such as Regions Seven and Eight, while it intends to beef up its capacity in Regions Two and Three in certain key areas.

If a person believes that they or someone they know may be suffering from mental health challenges, Dr. Osunbiyi advises, “Go to your nearest health centre; contact the nearest medics, nurses, or doctor at your health centre and you can call us here at the Mental Health Unit.”

The Mental Health Unit’s telephone numbers available during the work week are 2261402, 2261405 and 2261407.

The Guyana Inter Agency Suicide Prevention Helpline Telephone numbers available 24/7 are: (+592) 223-0001, 223-0009, 600-7896 and 623-4444.