By Wendella Davidson
YOUTHFUL Dr Jenese October has etched her name in the annals of this country’s history as the first local doctor to specialise in Mental Health, targeting children and adolescents.
Dr October recently returned from Cuba where she completed specialty studies in Child Psychiatry, a three-year, post-graduate programme for which she was granted a partial scholarship from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

Prior to heading to Cuba, Dr October had completed CXC (as it was referred to at the time) at a city school and the New Amsterdam Multilateral Secondary School, and at age 16, she enrolled at the University of Guyana to read for an associate degree in medical technology.
In July 2005, after completing university studies, she applied for a scholarship to do medicine and was included in the batch of students who left for Cuba in September that same year. Graduating in 2012, she returned to Guyana and served for three years before heading back to Cuba to be tutored in child and adolescent psychiatry.

According to Dr October, she always had an interest in general medicine and found herself becoming more intrigued about mental illness during rotation in the fifth year of studying to become a medical doctor. “I always wanted to understand how it is that a physically healthy person is unable to function adequately once they have a mental disorder. The more I was exposed to psychiatric illnesses during my rotation stints, the more curious I became to know more to be able to help persons with such conditions,” she said.

Dr October is of the view that early diagnosis of a mental health disorder, coupled with proper management and treatment, can help to stem progression of the disease. Child psychiatry is the early detection and diagnosis of these mental health disorders before it reaches adulthood, she stated.

As the first trained Guyanese Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Dr October says she feels honoured and proud, knowing that she is a young professional in the field. She said that her exposure to persons suffering from mental health illnesses has caused her to realise that the awareness of these conditions has not reached all corners of the country. She posits that her input will go a long way in helping the situation.

Dr October recalled spending the last three years in Cuba being attached to the only paediatric teaching hospital in the capital of Havana with an in-service Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Ward. She described her experience as invaluable and vast, while noting that she has had the privilege of attending to a range of psychiatric disorders.

A simple, motivated and hard-working individual, Dr October is the eldest of four who include a cousin, who is practically like a brother. She grew up in New Amsterdam with her grandmother, the late Daisy Baker, a retired school teacher. She recalls her late grandmother had a very strict principle that books come first and anything else after. “She basically instilled in me the importance of education and how through education, anyone, irrespective of his/her background, can be elevated. She was a firm advocate of education, “It was principal in my household,” she added.

Reflecting on Cuba during her first stint there, Dr October said it was challenging dealing with a different society, language and culture, and reminded that there were also students from different parts of the world. “We all had to adapt to the new conditions and surroundings and stay focused,” she said.