00:00 According to previous statistics, one in every four people suffered from a mental health-related issue.
00:07 But Minister of Health Terence Dyalsing says it's likely more prevalent than that today.
00:13 While giving the feature address at the TTMA's medical research conference at the Hilton Trinidad on Sunday,
00:20 Minister Dyalsing said it is important that we find new ways to address the growing number of cases
00:26 which largely go unrecognised and so untreated.
00:30 There is an explosion of mental health issues that we have to address.
00:36 The rates of depression have gone up, rates of suicide, rates of anxiety.
00:42 The old model of talking about mental health when a patient comes to a psychiatrist,
00:50 comes to a psychologist, lays down on a couch like Charlie and Two and a Half Men.
00:56 Those days have to be over. Why?
00:59 Because many patients don't know that they need help.
01:03 They don't have access to a professional.
01:06 He says in many instances, either patients are unaware that they need psychological help
01:12 or they simply cannot afford it.
01:14 Look at that child who admitted she touched the teacher and the mother said the family needs psychological counselling.
01:22 They are not going to access a physician.
01:25 One, they don't know they need it. Two, they can't afford it.
01:29 How do we treat these issues?
01:32 So access to mental health services is one of the areas I am challenging the TTMA,
01:38 the University of the West Indies, to look at.
01:41 Minister Dyalsing says unlike diabetes and high blood pressure, it's not a one-size-fits-all approach
01:48 and innovative ways to tackle the issue have to be developed.
01:53 He then made this call.
01:55 I want to challenge the medical fraternity, including the University of the West Indies,
02:03 to think beyond because we have within our reach right now to use artificial intelligence,
02:16 smart machine learning, deep learning, big data, all of these things where they are convergent,
02:23 to put tools at your disposal that for the first time in generations can disrupt the status quo.
02:34 We have to come up with ways of using chatbots and AI to distribute mental health services
02:43 into the homes of those who need it and who don't even know that they need it.
02:49 Cindy Ragubar-Tikasingh, TV6 News.
02:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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