Health Ministry to craft new 5-year mental health plan

Over the course of five years, a new mental health plan will be introduced to guide the way such matters are addressed in the country as well as impact the root causes.

This was announced by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony during a recent event, where he underscored the need for such a document. He related that after the previous plan was crafted, the Pan American Health Organisation found that many of the targets remained unfulfilled.
“Over the years, we have tried to come up with different health plans. We had a plan on mental health in 2015 to 2020 and when you review some of the things that you were supposed to do over the last five years, how much of it have we been able to accomplish? PAHO did a review for us and I can say that a lot of the aspirational things over the last five years, not much has happened,” he said.
According to the Minister, the document had promising information that could have been utilised to curb mental health issues in the country. However, it was not utilised.
“There are good things that people came up with. You had all these consultative meetings, stakeholder groups that came and give ideas, plans to work with people and make sure we change the environment. But then, once the plan was written, not much happened. Obviously, it’s good to have a good plan and show a nice document but if you’re going to take it and put in on the shelf, then that’s not going to change the outcome.”
Moving forward, the Ministry will be examining the conclusions drawn by PAHO after their review, using it to create an impactful plan.
The Minister added, “From the review that PAHO has done, we would like to also now work with stakeholders to develop a new plan going forward, from 2021 to 2026, but this one we want to make sure that we use it. If we don’t we’ll just not be impacting the problem. All these plans are to make sure that we have impact on the problems.”
PAHO said it that together with partners, it is providing guidance and assistance to the Region of the Americas during the COVID-19 pandemic, to help support the mental and overall well-being of everyone, especially those who might require extra support during this difficult time.
Last month, it also launched a social media campaign to raise awareness of the sustained burden the COVID-19 pandemic poses on the mental health of frontline health workers, inviting them to share their stories and strategies to better manage and cope with this added challenge. (G12)