Heal Guyana offering tips to promote better mental health

HEAL Guyana Founder Sharon Lalljee-Richard feels that there needs to be a “major mindset shift” among Guyanese regarding mental health misconceptions. As such, she is inviting the public to tune in to the organisation for guidance during ‘Mental Health Awareness Week.’

Tomorrow, May 13, marks the beginning of ‘Mental Health’ week and Heal Guyana, a registered non-governmental organisation launched in 2017, is inviting everyone to visit their social media pages which will feature material designed to promote better mental health.

“Citizens are being encouraged to visit Heal Guyana’s social media pages on Facebook and Instagram to receive daily, easy to follow guidance on how to begin taking better care of themselves so that they can cope with the normal stresses of life, work more productively and ultimately, be in a better position to make a contribution to their community,” Lalljee-Richard told the Pepperpot Magazine.

She pointed out how the stigma attached to mental health continues to cause further suffering to those who are struggling to recover from the illness. “There needs to be a major mindset shift among Guyanese who continue to hold the misconception that mental health applies only to those diagnosed with disorders or disabilities. Mental health is an essential part of our everyday health and it is clearly stated in the World Health Organization’s constitution that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Lalljee-Richard offered that a vast majority of factors tend to impact the state of people’s mental health. “These can span from challenges associated with stressful work conditions, anxiety over finances and living an unhealthy lifestyle, all the way to personal and prolonged exposure to gender and sex-based discrimination, racism, violence, sexual abuse and a number of other human rights violations that many people from all walks of life are made to endure at some point during the course of their lives.”

Genetic factors also determine biological risks and no one is immune to the various levels of mental health impacts whether social, psychological or biological, she added.

Heal Guyana Member Caitlin Vieira, who is a trained psychologist specialising in addiction and suicide, offered that having good mental health does not mean that persons would not experience emotions like stress, sadness, anger and guilt. “These are necessary and essential emotions. It simply means that we have healthy ways of dealing with them and a strong overall level of resilience to them. In the same way that we would not let time pass on a physical illness before caring for ourselves or seeking professional help, we should regard our mental health with the same degree of urgency,” Vieira expressed.

She had so far authored several articles which were published on the Heal Guyana Platform addressing healthier ways of managing negative emotions, the psychological impacts of exposure to racism, how to deal with depression and other such useful mental health resources which can be accessed by visiting www.healguyana.org/platform.

The registered NGO which was initially launched on December 14, 2017 has also been working to strengthen ethnic relations between the two historically divided groups in Guyana and helping to empowering women who are faced with domestic violence situations to take the lifesaving steps they need to in order to leave their abusive partners and reclaim their own lives.

Other members of the Board of Directors are Egbert Alexander Carter and Rayann Hinckson.