With Guyana being tagged with the highest suicide rate in the world by the WHO based on 2012 figures, Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran says an action plan will be launched in February next year.
GINA said that he made this disclosure on Friday at an event to mark Mental Health Day, at Ramphal House, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive.
Over the last decade, the government has faced questions about the high suicide rate. Despite intentions to declare it a national emergency, the recent World Health Organisation (WHO) figure would indicate that the government, in office for 22 consecutive years, has not been successful in addressing this problem.
Ramsaran said that two significant areas of health in Guyana are relatively on the back burner, disabilities and rehab medicine and mental health. However, according to GINA, he said that “in recent years, I have been trying to bring them up to scratch. Earlier in the year a workshop was held to train almost 200 workers in various ministries etc, in recognising depression and suicide tendencies, the police, doctors and nurses and the education sector were involved”.
The Health Minister said, “We recognise that we need to have a strategy. Our psychiatrist and his team have been looking at what should be done as part of this strategy. This is the beginning of a national conversation …by 2015, we will have a new strategy and there will be many other activities coming up.”
Over the next few months, GINA reported, several other activities will be carried out and the government will also be partnering with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) on this project, which is expected to be launched next February.
Dr. Bhiro Harry, Psychiatrist at the Georgetown Public Hospital, was reported by GINA as saying that Guyana has been suffering like most other countries because there has not been any strong backing for mental health, where human and financial resources are concerned.
He said while some works have been done, it can be agreed that Guyanese have not benefitted enough. However, the WHO template and guidelines are being followed to ensure this project is effectively carried out, he said. A lot of consultation was also done to formulate ideas for the prelude presentation.
“We are going to take what we have and transform the Georgetown Hospital’s psychiatric centre into a psychiatric rehabilitation complex,” Dr. Harry said.