On October 11th, the country's first-ever Mental Health Conference and Awards Ceremony will bring together top psychologists, healthcare leaders, and community advocates to advance the conversation and highlight those making a difference.
The event, hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Psychologists, promises to tackle the challenges facing mental wellness across our nation.
00:00President of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Psychologists, Kelly McFarlane, warns that mental health is no longer a private struggle.
00:10It is a national crisis that demands we confront it head on.
00:15She notes that too often we assume someone is only struggling if they show it, if we see they are talking to themselves or visibly breaking down.
00:24The clinical psychologist and association president explains countless people are suffering in silence, invisible to those around them.
00:35A lot of people suffer silently or what you call high functioning depression and sometimes the signs are there and the signs are sort of obvious but because the person is coping,
00:48seems to be coping or they're coming out to work and they're doing what they're doing, if they're having explosions or they're moody or they're in a corner by themselves,
00:55you just say, well, that person is weird and moody and so on.
00:59Or sometimes we ourselves don't want to recognize and acknowledge or try to find out if there is something that is unusual.
01:11McFarlane adds that anxiety and depression are the most common mental health challenges.
01:17But she warns that unhealthy work environments often make the problem worse, driving stress and suffering that can go unnoticed until it becomes critical.
01:29But I also see a lot of it stemming from work, unfortunately.
01:35Our work culture is quite interesting in Trinidad and Tobago.
01:41Lots of unhealthy stuff, lots, lots, lots of unhealthy stuff.
01:44So I see a lot of that, a lot of that, and a lot of it leading to a lot of physical illness.
01:51Meanwhile, immediate past president Charles Collier stresses that while men face stigma, their mental health should also be prioritized.
02:00We face sort of a double stigma when we're dealing with mental health.
02:06We already have a stigma culturally about mental health and the peace.
02:11We regard any acknowledgments of mental health as being a man or a man.
02:18And as a consequence, nobody wants to fall into the man category.
02:24And so we are avoidant of addressing mental health in general.
02:28He adds that too often men are taught a notion of manhood that is not human.
02:33It requires men to suppress emotions and ignore their needs.
Be the first to comment