Dear Editor,
The Caribbean Voice lauds Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony and the Ministry of Health for the various initiatives to address mental health in general and suicide more specifically. We look forward to the speedy and holistic implementation of the updated mental health legislation across the health and social landscapes and a cogent plan to sensitize all Guyana as to its content, mandates and benefits. Given that October is Mental Health Awareness Month, it would indeed be appropriate for the charge to be given during this month and the process of sensitization unfold across the nation, starting perhaps with training for various stakeholders, especially NGOs along with media messages by influencers from various arenas such as sports and entertainment.
Meanwhile, we also look forward to the various suicide surveys being carried out as soon as possible so that the findings can drive suicide prevention in tandem with suicide prevention legislation. In this respect we share this link to an online workshop earlier this year, presented by retired UWI toxicologist, Dr. Verrol Simmons of Trinidad & Tobago, on ‘Pesticide Suicide First Aid’ which provides immediate steps that can be taken to mitigate the effects of poison ingestion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/abuseandsuicideprevention/permalink/1944135785786579. We hope all stakeholders can use and promote this workshop. Also, we again urge the Minister to consider banning all parquait based pesticides and step up the distribution of strong boxes to store all agri poisons so that every farmer would have such a facility. Incidentally, poison control centers were supposed to have been established across Guyana since 2016. Can an update on this be provided to the public?
Sincerely,
Annan Boodram
