THE Ministry of Health is currently engaged in developing an extensive eight-year plan to enhance its mental health services, according to Dr. Mark Constantine, Clinical Psychiatrist and head of the ministry’s Psychology Services, Training, and Education Programme.

Speaking during a recent interview, he shared that, “The ministry already has a mental health strategy at hand. However, that plan is in the process of being updated, which is going to be a plan for 2023-2030. That plan, I must say, is going to be a very comprehensive plan that is going to involve everyone across the country.”

Dr. Constantine said the mental health unit has since decentralised its services to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre on the East Bank of Demerara and the West Demerara Regional Hospital in Region Three.

Mental health professionals, including counsellors and psychiatrists, will also be stationed at health centres throughout the country. The Supply Health Centre on the East Bank of Demerara already houses a unit.

Additionally, a mental health website was launched as part of the ongoing endeavours.

“It is a website where persons can go online and easily access it. Once they access it those persons will be able to speak to a counsellor live online,” he said.

Furthermore, the ministry is striving to expand the chat time from eight hours daily to a round-the-clock service.

In accordance with this comprehensive plan, the government has embarked on a journey to train more persons in the field.

In 2022, the new Mental Health Protection and Promotion Bill was passed in the National Assembly to ensure efficient mental health services are provided.

The bill encompasses the integration of mental health services into the country’s primary health care system by deploying personnel at different sites. It also entails mental health services being extended to persons through telemedicine.