Special attention must be placed on mental health in Guyana – Counsellor

The Ministry of Health should direct its attention and invest heavily in the mental health of the Guyanese people, according to Guyanese-Canadian Addiction Counsellor, Shirvington Hannays.

Hannays, who is a licensed specialist in addiction, drugs, and alcohol abuse counsellor, during an interview with Guyana Times related that Guyana is on the verge of major oil wealth and as such, there is a need for respected agencies to pay special attention to the various mental health issues in the country and invest in them heavily to reap the success of the oil wealth.
“We’re at the junction in history as a country here in Guyana…. With the discovery of oil, the people of this country need to see the importance of mental health. You don’t have physical health unless you’re functioning optimally with your mental health,” he said.
The counsellor of almost ten years further stated that he would like to see governmental organisations take the leap forward and make that investment into the mental livelihood of the Guyanese people.
“I would like any governmental organisation to take mental health seriously across the board and invest in it big time,” he expressed.
He noted that if the people of Guyana’s mental health are compromised there won’t be any optimum productivity within the country that would foster continuous growth and embrace the oil wealth to come. He further added that Guyana cannot afford, and would suffer, because of a workforce that isn’t functioning at its optimum best.
“One-third of this country has a diagnosable mental illness, depression or anxiety because of that, the relevant agencies, the Ministry of Health, needs to pay special attention and invest heavily, because guess what happens, if people’s mental health is compromised, they’re not going to be at their optimum for productivity and that gets compromised with such a small population we cannot afford to have a population or a workforce that isn’t functioning or faring on their top cylinders because productivity suffers and if that suffers we’re not going to be able to reap the benefits of the oil wealth that is supposed to be coming our way, we’re not going to have the workforce to adequately address that and that’s why it needs to become paramount,” he noted.
Hannays called out the relevant authorities who are “skirting around the issues”, saying that he is “afraid and concerned that if we don’t address people’s mental health” the people of Guyana, the country as a whole will pay tremendously on a personal level, day-to-day basis, and at the Government level.
Meanwhile, the mental health advocate pivoted to his online mental health clinic, Smahoo Change Clinic, which offers counselling on mental health issues.
“I want to make it available to all Guyanese, especially persons living here. You should have access to some sort of mental health wellness support,” Hannays said.
He said that the online clinic offers four thirty-minute consultations per year where check-ups on persons’ mental health are done.
The clinic was founded in 2009 by Hannays to provide support for those who are challenged with addiction in all of its forms – substance, drug abuse, and more – by using treatment counselling models and motivational interviewing for client-centred substance abuse sobriety and recovery.