Guyana is making significant strides in tackling challenges associated with mental health, owing to the dedicated and collaborative efforts of officials on the ground, tasked with addressing the issue.
This was disclosed by Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony during the launch of National Mental Health initiatives on Wednesday, which signals the government’s commitment to improving mental health outcomes and providing accessible care to those who need it.
“Mental health is one of the challenges that we have in the country and has been one of the areas that has often been neglected. We don’t pay too much attention to mental health until it starts affecting us. And many years ago, Guyana has been known to have lots of cases of suicide and lots of challenges with mental health, but because of dedicated efforts, we’ve started to turn that around,” Dr Anthony said.
He congratulated the mental health department within the Health Ministry for its work.
“You can see that over the last couple of years that indeed, we are changing the outlook for mental health. When we look at mental health and perhaps suicide prevention as a subset of the issues relating to mental health, it is a big problem globally. In fact, statistics from the WHO [World Health Organisation] would show that every year, close to 800,000 persons would die from suicide around the world. To put that in perspective, basically it’s the whole population of Guyana dying every year from suicide,” the Health Minister related.
He noted that issues such as late diagnosis, lack of access to help services, and absence of a safety net are all major contributors.
On that note, he underscored the need for education regarding these stressors.
“And this has been a big problem. Mental health issues such as anxiety can lead to challenges and then you have attempted suicide. So, I think when we look at mental health issues which can actually cause attempted suicide or suicide… anxiety, depression—these are matters that we have to educate our population,” Dr Anthony said.
He pointed out that another contributing risk factor for attempted suicide is loneliness, as face-to-face contact in an age of technology has decreased.
“Low self-esteem can be another problem, societal stigma can be a problem. They are health conditions, and because of the way our society treat people, it can also lead to people feeling isolated,” the Health Minister shared.
He noted that people with disabilities also face challenges and urged society to be more mindful of the risk factors.
The initiatives were launched in collaboration with the Office of the President and include the Mental Health website—www.mentalhealth.gov.gy, the 915 Suicide Prevention Hotline, and a Mental Health Matters Animated Series.
