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  • 2 years ago
The 'Paint D Town Green' campaign which features a mental health village is hosted annually in commemoration of World Mental Health Day. It is done to promote the importance of mental health wellness and to also educate the public on some of the services available. This year, the event took place at Saith Park in Chaguanas.


Alicia Boucher has the details.
Transcript
00:00 Director of Mental Health in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Hazel Othello,
00:03 outlines the objectives of the Paint the Town Green campaign, which include the
00:09 promotion of education, awareness and multi-sectoral support efforts and
00:13 normalizing the conversation around mental health, therefore breaking the
00:18 silence. Paint the Town Green is also about helping parents to be less
00:23 concerned about the stigma associated with seeking help for their children and
00:28 more concerned about ensuring the well-being of those children by
00:33 ensuring that they get the help that they need. Dr. Othello points to
00:38 statistics showing that depression and anxiety come at a global annual cost of
00:43 1 trillion US dollars. She says non-communicable diseases and mental
00:48 health illness can intertwine. She cites the 2019 to 2029 mental health policy in
00:54 this country, which seeks to decentralize mental health care services, reducing the
01:00 reliance on the St. Anne's Psychiatric Hospital. She adds that integrating
01:04 mental health into primary care for which training is ongoing is to push
01:09 equitable access. And we will ensure over time that the essential psychiatric
01:14 drugs that are frequently used are easily available at all primary care
01:20 centers. This will ensure that the average person, regardless of who you are,
01:25 who begins to develop a mental health disorder or who needs that mental health
01:30 assistance, can have the primary care system as their entry point into the
01:36 health care system. And if all their mental health needs are met at that
01:40 level, there will be no need for them to go on to a psychiatric clinic or be
01:44 admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Country representative at a Pan American
01:49 Health Organization, Dr. Erica Wheeler, says depressive and anxiety disorders
01:55 and alcohol and substance abuse impact just over 8% of this country's
02:00 population over the age of 15. Another worrying statistic is the rise in
02:06 suicides between the years 2000 and 2019 in the region of the Americas. Dr. Wheeler
02:13 says stigmatization and human rights violations against people suffering with
02:18 mental health still plague the region and access to quality service, including
02:23 in the health sector, is poor. Everyone has a right to the highest attainable
02:30 standard of mental health. This includes the right to be protected from mental
02:35 health risks, the right to available, accessible, acceptable and good quality
02:42 care, and the right to liberty, independence and inclusion, not exclusion,
02:48 in the communities in which they live. PAHO and the World Health Organization
02:53 are urging countries to comply with the different international conventions that
02:58 outline best practice for treating with mental health, including the Human Rights
03:03 Declaration. Dr. Wheeler says both entities continue to work with countries
03:07 in attaining these standards, and she expresses the view that people can lead
03:11 productive lives if they are treated in their communities instead of being
03:16 institutionalized. Furthermore, she states that institutionalization can
03:21 decrease independent function and infringe on human rights. So we in PAHO
03:27 and WHO have been supporting the Ministry of Health in their efforts to
03:32 strengthen community-based mental health services by providing mental health gap
03:37 training for primary care providers, supporting the access to mental health
03:43 services close to where they reside, and supporting the deinstitutionalization of
03:49 persons living with mental disorders. A strategy for improving mental health and
03:56 suicide prevention was approved in September by PAHO member states at a
04:00 council meeting in Washington DC. In addition to this, Dr. Wheeler says, there
04:06 is the PAHO and WHO framework to help chart the way forward. On another note,
04:11 the website Find Care TT, which was established during the pandemic, is one
04:16 resource people can use in this country to get guidance on accessing help for
04:21 many mental health problems at www.findcarett.com. Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
04:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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