The youngest of 14 children and half of a pair of identical twins, Shane Tull was always surrounded by family and from an early age he knew he wanted to work with people and help them. So it was no big surprise when he eventually became a licensed Clinical Psychotherapist. With more than 20 years of practicing in the US, more recently he has also been practicing in Guyana.
“Being the youngest of 14 siblings, I am always fascinated by relationships and how people think and to think in a way as an individual and how that connects to families…,” Tull said as he explained his journey towards his career choice. By the time he was five years old, most of his siblings were married and had their own families and he got to go to their homes and be with their families.
“I really love the family set up and that is really what influenced me in my choice in doing mental health and psychotherapy,” he continued.
He has seen with the advent of COVID-19 pandemic how mental health has come to the fore as many people have been impacted and are more willing to slow down and talk about their mental health.
Tull said he witnessed so much pain and grief at the onset of the pandemic as well as many deaths and so many others who are in the stage called pandemic fatigue. People have lost so many loved ones and have not been able to grieve properly and the burden of this situation has been overwhelming on families. However, through it all, the clinical psychotherapist said, he has seen resilience as people have come together and supported each other in what he termed as community mental health. He has also seen more and more people willing to accept that they may have a mental health issue and willing to seek help. And importantly, he said, a lot of Guyanese men have been reaching out. He pointed out that if a safe space for men is created, they would show up and they would thrive.
In an effort to assist persons through this crisis and after, Tull, who over the past five years has been working under USAID and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) at the Davis Memorial and St Joseph Mercy hospitals, has crafted a handbook titled “The Mental Health Pandemic”, which was recently launched.
“I believe that mental health became the pandemic within the pandemic…,” Tull told Stabroek Weekend in an interview, while noting that it has been more than a year since humans have been asked to social distance, wash their hands and take other precautions to avoid contracting COVID-19.
Over the last year and a half, the 53-year-old father one said he has seen a huge uptick in depression, anxiety and sub-stance abuse and just “people becoming detached on how to manage their lives”.
He pointed out that prior to COVID, people had the opportunity to go to work, school and other places to engage but then all of sudden they were locked in their homes, which comes with its own problems. It not just affected their ability to socialize but some were even forced to be locked at home with abusive partners.
Working from home also comes with its own challenges, as while parents are working they have to also manage their children who are also affected from being bounced off their normal routine of school and extracurricular activities.
“Also the unknown of COVID-19 … and the anxiety of not knowing when this is going to end really has added to our sense of anxiety and depression…,” he said.
Tull said seeing firsthand how the pandemic affected people was one of the main motivations for him to write the book.
“I wanted to offer something that is more like a handbook where the layperson, you or I could read it and really get a sense of okay, how can I understand my own mental health one, and two if I am aware of my mental health what do I need to improve, to maintain it. And I offer skills and techniques where you can recognise the signs in someone you care about,” Tull shared.
For him mental health is not a personal issue but a community and national issue which affects everyone as he pointed out that if parents are having mental health challenges then definitely their children’s mental health would be affected.
His book, he said, offers a guideline of things that could be done to address mental health and to empower the reader to look at the fact that “we are all change agents…we are all soldiers in the army.
“There is something that we all can do to improve our mental health as well as support someone that is probably experiencing a mental health crisis as well.”
He believes how people manage their mental health and the pandemic will be a reflection of humanity and at the end of it all we should examine how we have survived the pandemic, and supported our families and communities.
It has not been all bad. Tull noted that some people reported that the pandemic gave them an opportunity to slow down and reconnect with their families and some even started new careers as they realised “this nine to five running up and down is really not important.
“It really allowed us to evaluate our lives and see what is important. Like I realised just writing this book is important…”
He said one of his more powerful experiences in his years of clinical experience was one he had right here in Guyana when he facilitated a men’s day programme at a local agency and in a room full of men who “shared experiences, talked to each other, supported each other…they were validated.”
“I do believe we all want validation and the men in our culture [are just told] to go out there and make money, take care of your family…but the message that came out was that they did not feel validated. They felt like their wives didn’t understand them, their kids didn’t understand them and they had to be perfect, go to work and come home and be the perfect husband and father.”
The programme even caused him to reflect on what his father had to deal with supporting 14 children and the experience taught him that he was an “ungrateful child because I never recognised that my father might have been struggling with these issues,” he said. In that room, he witnessed vulnerability, healing and hope. Anecdotal reports from that programme have indicated that many of the men have improved relationships with their wives and children and they are working on making it better.
‘Long, long time ago’
Tull left his Meadowbrook Gardens home a “long, long time ago” as a child to move to the US with his family, but he said his parents ensured he remained connected to his homeland as they sent him to Guyana every year for holiday.
Over the years working in the US, Tull has had many experiences but one that stays with him was working at a child development agency where he dealt with many young black men and what was impactful was when they visited his office and realised he was black.
“They never had a black therapist before so that was powerful. What it communicated to them was that maybe this is someone I trust, this is someone I emulate… I stayed there for three years and it was really powerful to see. A lot of them went off to high school, went office to college…,” he said.
He said who is today is the gift that humanity demands of him and not what was given to him as he described his profession as his life’s work since he believes he was blessed to have the opportunity to return to Guyana and be a part of change.
Since the pandemic all of his sessions have been virtual even though he operates within the hospitals’ realm and if he needs to see someone then a space would be created for him.
The virtual sessions have been more challenging, Tull revealed, as he said they involve more work as opposed to in person sessions where one can quickly assess a client. With virtual sessions he has to advise clients how to hold their cameras so as to see as much of their body structure as possible to make an assessment.
October 10 is usually observed as World Mental Health Day to raise awareness of and mobilize efforts in support of mental health. Speaking to both men and women on the heels of this observance, Tull advised that they allow themselves to be vulnerable and talk about their feelings and fears. Women were also encouraged to support men even if they may make a lot of mistakes as everyone wants validation.
“When society places so much emphasis on men being big and strong we are not giving them room to make mistakes, we are not giving them room to be human,” he noted.
Locally, he wants to see more support not just for mental health clients but mental health workers like social workers and teachers and in this regard he has developed a curriculum which he has sent to some of the ministries offering seminars on mental health for staff. He wants to see companies sponsor mental health days for workers, especially those who have worked through the pandemic. And he encourages everyone to “be gentle to yourself”.
