… to train teachers to identify children with psychological trauma
By Lakhram Bhagirat
The Public Health Ministry’s Mental Health Unit is expected to begin piloting its National Self-harm Surveillance System (NSSS) in Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) at the beginning of July, according to the Unit’s Director, Dr Util Thomas.
Dr Util Thomas
“That is going to be piloted on July at three main hospitals in Guyana – the Suddie Hospital, Region Two; the West Demerara Regional Hospital, Region Three; and New Amsterdam Hospital, Region Six. The reason for that is that Region Two has the highest suicide rate (in the country), Region Six the second and Region Three the third,” she revealed.
Dr Thomas said the Unit chose the three regions to pilot the programme because of the high numbers of suicide cases and that is just one way of combating that social ill. The NSSS would mandate hospitals to report all cases of suicide and attempted suicide to the Unit within one week of its occurrence. She said once reported, attempted suicide cases would be monitored and persons would be psychiatrically evaluated to ensure all bases are covered.
“With each and every case we are going to make sure that you see a psychiatrist at least one time. You are going to see a psychologist and you are going to see a social worker because there will be stresses associated with why you doing that and then we are going to track you until you are no longer considered high risk,” Dr Thomas informed.
Poor coping skills
Persons try to hurt themselves for various reasons but according to Dr Thomas, the Unit has discovered the major cause for suicide and self-harm cases in Guyana – poor coping skills. She explained that the Unit observed that most cases arise out of impulsive reaction to triggering incidents.
“Some of these people have a temporary situation that’s occurs within that hour and they get angry and because of the films they were looking at or because they have the model from somebody (who would have committed suicide) they think that is the way to solve the problem, they do that same kind of thing,” she posited.
Suicide, in Guyana, is most common among people of Indian descent and most times committed by the consumption of toxic chemicals, especially gramoxone. The suicide attempt is triggered by arguments, infidelity and domestic issues.
The Director noted that most suicide victims show no signs of depression – which is one of the major causes of suicide worldwide, rather, it stems from the victims’ inability to cope with situations they find themselves in.
“This kind of ideation or coping mechanism is popular among them or the people they are closely associated with, even though depression is one of the causes…,” she reiterated.
Remedy
In order to address poor coping skills, the Mental Health Unit as a part of the Mental Health Action Plan 2015-2020 and the Suicide Prevention Plan, will be placing a lot of emphasis on educating persons and teaching them coping skills.
In addition, for those who would have lost relatives and/or friends to suicide, they will be monitored and care would be provided, if required. “The staff have to do a report of whether the family is coping or not and if we have to do any interventions. They would have to look for signs of depression and other issues we consider as precipitators of suicide,” Dr Thomas said.
She added that staff from the Unit have access to a list of families of suicide victims who are constantly being contacted and offered various services. She informed that the Unit would make house calls to the families to ensure that every step is being taken to prevent another suicide.
“The staff would visit and they would recommend whether the family needs to see a psychologist or get psychiatric care since everyone copes differently,” she said.
Psychiatric trauma
Worldwide, 10 to 20 per cent of children and adolescents experience mental disorders, with half of all mental illnesses beginning by the age of 14. If untreated, these conditions severely influence children’s development, their educational attainments and their potential to live fulfilling and productive lives.
Children with mental disorders face major challenges with stigma, isolation and discrimination, as well as lack of access to health care and education facilities, in violation of their fundamental human rights.
In Guyana, because of the stigma attached to mental illness, children suffering from those illnesses are prevented from accessing critical care. They are thrown into the school system without the proper care and are bullied; sometimes they become the bully and are discriminated against. That aside, the school system lacks guidance and welfare counsellors and the welfare officers are too few and would act too late in most cases.
Teachers do not receive any training to deal with children suffering from psychological and psychiatric trauma and quite often, those who suffer become neglected. Neglecting children going through mental turmoil often leads them to inflict harm upon themselves and others.
There have been several cases of children cutting their wrists and posting pictures on social media and even in those instances, they are not being afforded the help they need.
To address this cry for help, the Unit will be training all teachers to identify and promptly deal with children suffering from psychological/psychiatric trauma.
“We are going to tackle self-harm in schools from September and what we have is training for teachers in Cognitive Behavioural Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS). It is training for teachers to be able to identify when a child has a psychological trauma,” Dr Thomas informed.
She added that the Unit will be advocating for the introduction of a mental health aspect of the school curriculum. The Unit already began training peer educators to deal with discrimination against children suffering from mental illnesses.
