AS early as 1978, Guyana was known as the country with one of the highest suicide rates in the world, which took a lot of collective action and the implementation of several policies to reduce.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, at Saturday’s opening ceremony for a two-day media training workshop, stated that for many years after the Jonestown massacre, the stigma surrounding suicide hung over Guyana.

“After that particular mass tragedy, the country’s name was stigmatised, and it took a while to change the narrative about it,” he said.

The minister remarked that there was a time when the first thing people spoke about while engaging him during his overseas travels, was the massacre.

He said that in the world of mental health, Guyana is seen as one of those places with high suicide rates.

According to the minister, this must change along with the stigma that still exists. One way to do this, he said, is for every person in Guyana to start working responsibly to help bring the numbers down.

The Government of Guyana and the Ministry of Health have been doing work in this area, he said.

“Up to a year ago, if you attempted suicide, you could have gone to jail for a maximum of two years. That was the law,” he said before reminding those in attendance that this legal provision which was in place since the 1930s, was officially changed in November 2022.

Minister Anthony emphasised that the media has an important role to play in changing the narrative about mental health particularly suicide, and bringing an end to the stigma.

It was explained that medical practitioners often use technical terms which will need to be broken down so that the average person can understand what is being said. This is where the media has to step in.
He added that members of the media have a tremendous amount of influence over the public and as such can use their respective platforms to educate the public about important issues such as suicide and the various services that are available to them.

“We have mobile teams that would go out to Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine. How do people know? So, if they don’t know, they assume it doesn’t exist and they have problems if they don’t come,” the minister said.

He explained that while the ministry may feel that they are doing a great job at advertising, sometimes the audience is limited and only a few access the services. However, with the help of the media more people can become aware of those available services.

The two-day media workshop focused on equipping journalists with the right tools needed for reporting on suicide, mental health and traumatic incidents.