Mental health workshop opens

As the Public Health Ministry continues its efforts to place emphasis on mental health, some 25 stakeholders from across the country are meeting for a four-day trainers’ workshop which concentrates on the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP).
The workshop, which began on Tuesday, is the fruit of the collaboration of the Public Health Ministry and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO).
Participants are a mixture of stakeholders from regional hospitals, as well as those from areas where there are more cases of suicide.
Shedding light on the purpose of the World Health Organisation’s mhGAP, the Public Health Ministry in a statement explained that the programme aims to improve services for health disorders such as mental, neurological and substance, with special attention paid to low and middle-income countries.
The programme preaches that with proper care, psychosocial assistance and medication, tens of millions could be treated for depression, schizophrenia, and epilepsy, prevented from suicide and begin to lead normal lives– even where resources are scarce.
One primary objective of the workshop is the training of mental health and primary care professionals so that once the mhGAP is introduced, they themselves may serve as trainers to frontline health providers.
Before the programme takes off at the community level, some 300 persons are hoped to be trained.
The workshop also aims to review the mhGAP interventional guide training manual, adapting it to be more suitable for the Guyanese environment, while simultaneously familiarising participants with the use of said guide.
Some of the topics being examined are general principles of care, issues of support and supervision, depression, suicide, psychosis, drugs, behavioural disorders and the general framework for working with children and adolescents.
Guyana has consistently recorded staggeringly high figures of suicide and suicide attempts, which coupled its less than one million population, earned the country the title of having the world’s highest suicide rate. The Public Health Ministry reports that between 2010 and 2012, there were 667 suicides, resulting in an average of 200 deaths per year.
The Ministry continued that the National Mental Health Action Plan for 2015-2020 and the National Suicide Prevention plan is being implemented.
Additionally, there has been the formation of a National Task Force which is intended to focus on risk factor reduction, health promotion and prevention; reducing the access to the means of suicide, health systems response to suicidal behaviour and surveillance and research.
There are 16 satellite clinics available in all but Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), where mental health services are available. In terms of staff, there are five psychiatrists, seven psychologists, five general doctors, 11 social workers, 153 nurses and one occupational therapist.
The Public Health Ministry launched its Suicide Hotline Numbers in August 2015. The numbers are 223-0001, 223-0009, 600-7896, 623-4444.