LOCAL mental health expert, Indhira Harry, has created “Unboxed” – a social media show on mental health – to create awareness and educate the populace on the illness to remove the stigma attached to it.

Unboxed, which was launched in March 2022, has been on major social media platforms but recently, Light 104. 1 FM radio has been airing the episodes as well.
Harry has over 10 years of experience as a mental health expert and has worked at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for five of those years before branching off into private practice to do Psychiatry and Therapy for patients.

Unboxed came about after she realised that there was a lot of stigma attached to mental health and that there are not enough education and awareness being created to help persons so that that stigma can be broken.

“I thought it would be great where there would be a platform for persons to learn about different mental health areas,” she shared in an interview with Pepperpot Magazine. Persons are, therefore, able to contact her through this medium and book sessions for therapy.

Harry is able to do a full evaluation when that individual visits her office to discuss the issues affecting them. “With Unboxed, I am trying to let people understand that it’s ok to get help; there should be no shame in that,” Harry said.

The Rewards
Harry studied medicine in Cuba and had initially liked Orthopaedics, but when she did Psychiatry, things changed for her. In Cuba, there are hospitals for each of their major specialities and Harry was especially impressed at how Psychiatry had an entire complex just for their patients.

“It was very organised. I really liked it. I realised that this was the one field that you are there with the patient from beginning to end; you’re on the journey with them. That person comes to you and you get to see them from a low point to a functional level where they’re the best version of themselves, and I think that that’s very rewarding,” she expressed.
And she’s been able to see this firsthand in many of her experiences with patients. For example, once she had a patient who went to her after hearing voices and seeing things. This patient was also using substances and their employer had to let them go.

“Family brought them in because they were unwell and we had to get them on treatment. When they started to improve, they were cooperative and continued with treatment and was able to get back to work and has been holding down a job, been functioning, has a family,” Harry fondly recalled.

She’s been using her office to advocate kindness for people with mental health issues. “I’ve said we need to be kind to people and respect whether or not they have a mental health issue. You really don’t know what it’s like until you’re going through it and you shouldn’t judge persons. When we’re listening to persons, we shouldn’t be judging them based on what we would be doing; everyone is different,” she advised.

Furthermore, she said there’s no one fix for everybody. To really get down to the core of the problem, each person and his/her problem has to be assessed individually.
Harry believes that there are many benefits to come from educating persons on mental health from a young age, even from in school.