Dear Editor,
After the initial hullabaloo, we have hardly heard anything about the Education Ministry’s Mobile Psychosocial Unit (MPU). So we ask, is this Unit only servicing students in school settings or all students wherever they may be? For example, the children of murdered victim Zali Sugrim and the perpetrator, Ryan Sugrim, attend various schools but none so far has received counselling through the Mobile Psychosocial Unit.
In fact, as far as we are aware, children of murder, suicide and abused victims in Guyana have never been offered counselling through the MPU, even though almost all of them attend schools in various parts of the country. Since the Unit was set up, The Caribbean Voice (TCV) has handled many cases for which children who attend schools have needed counselling but none of them has ever been counselled by the MPU. In almost every case, TCV has had to provide the counselling or reach out to various social workers and certified counsellors to do so.
So the question remains: whither the Education Ministry’s Mobile Psychosocial Unit (MPU) and who are the trained professionals within this Unit? Surely it has not become like the Suicide Helpline, which claims to be doing great work but has refused to provide supporting stats.
Sincerely,
The Caribbean Voice
