Some may say that Dr Indhira Harry was predestined to become a mental health practitioner but for her it was really witnessing the results of the holistic treatment of a person’s mind in the final stages of her studies that drew her to the field rather than growing up with psychiatrist Dr Bhiro Harry as a father.
Even as she practiced as a psychiatrist at the Georgetown Public Hospital she knew that she wanted to do more than just diagnose her patients. For her, it was not about informing a patient about what was wrong and sending that person off; rather, she wanted to be part of the healing process.
Later, opening her own practice, which her father is part of, gave her that opportunity as she not only diagnoses her patients but is also their therapist, which helps her to walk them through their healing journey. Not satisfied with this and seeing how mental health is still taboo in Guyana’s society with many being discriminated against, Dr Harry wanted to join the fight towards normalising the illness. This desire has now seen the birth of Unboxed (meaning opening up, bringing it out into the open) through which she speaks about mental health, healing and identifying stressors among other issues.
Even though Unboxed is relatively young — she started it on April 1 — Dr Harry believes there is room for it as she pointed out there can never be enough effort to normalise an illness that for generation has been stigmatised.
To do this, Dr Harry is sharing Unboxed on social platforms Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok in video form; she provides the content and the filming and editing is done by Permanand Puran known as Randy. Through the videos they address various mental health issues, starting with explaining conditions. She has covered how to manage stress and will close the first season with anxiety and depression. In the second season, she hopes to address suicide, emotion, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), abuse and substance abuse among others.
Two videos about six to seven minutes long are released per week but Dr Harry said she is also careful not to lose what they are trying to convey by making the videos too short since the content is very important. At times she also posts motivational or funny quotes to make it more interactive.
The idea of taking mental health ‘out of the box’ was birthed in January of 2020 and back then she had hoped for it to be done on radio, but then COVID-19 came, and everything went out of whack. But Dr Harry knew even more that she had to get it done and she later bought into the video format.
“I see quite a few persons who have mental health issues and I have been doing this for about eight years now and unfortunately at no point in time do we not hear some mention the stigma attached to mental health and they are either ashamed to come forward or worried about what people may think…,” Dr Harry said.
Or there are times when they are diagnosed and they need treatment but then there will be the negative “rhetoric of ‘oh that is mad people medicine that’s going to drive you crazy’ or the most common one ‘that will make you addictive’ and so many negative things persons are being told,” she added.
Dr Harry said she realised that there is not enough education available on the issue and not enough awareness on how the issues appear and what can be done about them.
“I really think we need to make that step. It has been way too long…,” she said while she recalled that Guyana was once known as the suicide capital of the world and even so at one time there dismal support for a suicide walk that was organised as opposed to the support breast cancer walks receive.
‘Not enough support’
Dr Harry is of the opinion that there is not enough support when it comes to mental health and there are not enough people the field.
“People need to learn about mental health and start seeing it as a normal condition the same way they would see diseases such as hypertension or diabetes,” she said.
She noted that people would visit doctor after doctor to be diagnosed for their illnesses but would not take care of their minds the same way, not realising that body and mind go together.
“So we need both to be good in order to have a good state of health and so I just want to really put this information out there so that persons can learn to try and make having the conversation about mental health normal and not seen as taboo,” Dr Harry said.
She also sees the need for people to stop addressing the illness as if it was not real. Some offer to take the individual to church for prayer and she would have to impress that while there is nothing wrong with the spiritual or religious aspect, it is something medical and needs to be treated.
Looking forward she sees that the road is long, but she hopes that Unboxed would be a part of the journey in normalising the illness and though she is not naïve enough to believe that will be the answer and suddenly remove the taboo attached to condition, she hopes it would help create awareness and trigger conversations. Those conversations, she hopes, would move people to address mental illness, call it by its name and seek help.
Persons have been responding positively to the videos posted and some have been reaching out and for her the longevity of Unboxed depends on the audience and whether it is really reaching people. A special email address is published for people who want to contact her for help.
She is happy that the younger generation is more open to discussing mental health and reaching out for help and is now working on the older generation.
Need the therapy
From very early in her career Dr Harry realised that people need the therapy/counselling as much as they may need medication at times. So instead of referring to herself as a psychiatrist she prefers to be known as a mental health practitioner as counselling/therapy plays an integral role in her treatment.
“Yes, you may have a diagnosis, but the therapy is extremely important, so I try to do them hand in hand,” she said.
She shared that she studied medicine in Cuba and mental health was part of the last rotation she did. She noted that Cuba has an entire hospital complex for mental health and psychiatry. There are wards for acute patients, chronic patients (male and female separated), geriatrics and children.
“Entering the hospital area and working there was just such a peaceful experience and I felt at least in this area you are with people from the beginning to the end. It is not like you come to me for a sprained toe and then I never see you back again in my life; you come to me you have a problem and we take this journey together. I see you through…,” she shared.
She likened the process of taking a journey and while she liked orthopaedics and optometry, on her return home she realised that there was greater need for psychiatry.
She does not believe her specialty was predestined, rather it was the desperate need for more people in the field on her return home that gave her the final push.
Even growing up Dr Harry said she was not sure about following her father in the medical field. She recalled even though he was very busy with his work he took time out for his family, so she never felt as if he was absent or missing.
When she told him, she was joining the field, she recalled, “He was very happy. He was like, ‘finally somebody to take over from me’”.
She is one of two children; her brother is a dentist.
Following the completion of her contract, Dr Harry opened an office on Brickdam where her father is part of the practice. While their offices are at the top of the building, there is also a space at the bottom for people who may not be able to make it up the stairs.
It was in private practice that she got the space to do therapy as at the GPH, social workers or psychologists counselled the patient.
“At GPHC…when you are done evaluating the patient in terms of medication, symptoms, how they are doing, if they needed to talk you would send them to someone to talk… But now I get to do both, so I feel like it is a more holistic approach…,” she pointed out.
Dr Harry does not allow herself to be overwhelmed emotionally as she recalled the good training she received in Cuba taught her to be very objective and focus on the patient and their needs and not to be clouded by her emotions or subjective feelings.
“They trained us well to be objective, so we get to help that person to the best of our ability and at the same time it doesn’t take a toll on us. Not to say it takes away from empathy or sympathy it just puts you in a position to be clearer mentally,” she explained.
Dr Harry considers herself “a bit of warrior” who doesn’t back down and this gets her father a little unsettled. She recalled that at GPH she would encounter patients who were somewhat aggressive, and she was always the one to say “nah, you ain’t go scare me”.
“This thing is when they see that you are afraid, they do more things to make you even more afraid. And I am like ‘No, no. Nothing happening here. Calm yourself down…,’” she said.
In jest, she recalled a patient who, using profanity, threatened to kill her and she told him to do it. He then responded, ‘Fuh a fine piece a girl you gah nuff mouth’, but their relationship improved after that incident.
She also lectured students who passed through psychiatry and she always told them not to show fear and ignore certain things and if they have to leave the area do it calmly and not in a way that attracts attention.
Her satisfaction comes when she helps someone, but there are times when has to talk to herself when some patients take longer than anticipated to be healed.
While they book patients by appointments at the practice, Dr Harry said they do not turn away walk-ins, but try to fit them in.
“Going to seek help is not just when you have a problem… persons don’t realise if I am stressed out or if I am overwhelmed maybe I need to speak to someone to get help, get some coping mechanism, get something off my chest. Other situations like a loss of loved one, you go through grief. Sometimes you need that support, you need somebody to talk you through it. So, it is not just if I am depressed or if I am anxious or have any other mental health conditions. It is not just then when you reach out for help…,” Dr Harry advised.
Dr Harry can be reached at unboxed.gy@gmail.com. You can also find Unboxed on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok via the @unboxed.gy handle.
