Ministry launches programme for mental health development of children and adolescents

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has launched a programme that will benefit the mental health and development of adolescents and children.

In a release yesterday, the MoH stated that it has launched a Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing and Development of Children and Adolescents Programme in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

This joint programme, the release explained, aims to address and break the inter-generational cycle of poor mental health and transform mental health outcomes in Guyana for both current and future generations.

The launch took place at the Grand Coastal Inn on the East Coast Demerara and attendees included Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony; Deputy Representative of UNICEF Guyana and Suriname, Irfan Akhtar; PAHO/WHO Representative, Dr Luis Codina; Director of the Mental Health Unit, Dr Timothy Morgan; Coordinator of the Adolescent Health Unit, Cilandell Glen; Unit Chief of Mental Health and Substance Use, PAHO/WHO HQ, Dr Renato Oliveira e Souza; along with other officials.

In his remarks, Anthony noted that the ministry is working on establishing a comprehensive national strategy to combat mental health in Guyana.

“While we implement the new legislation, we want to have a comprehensive national strategy on mental health to make sure that what is captured in the law, we now have in our mental health strategy. So one of the core principles we want to look at is the deinstitutionalising of patients who have been institutionalised. We also want to make sure that mental health services are integrated with primary health care and that we have preventative centres for these patients since they will need a safe place for counselling.”

In addition, the health minister said that very soon a project for the billing of an Electronic Health Record system will be launched.

“We are launching very soon a project whereby we want to bill out an electronic health record system. The idea behind this is that every person who would have an interface with the public health system when they come to us will have a unique identifier and their patient data will be collected. If the patients go to a hospital in Berbice, Essequibo or even Linden, the same system will be used. So, you don’t have to go to one place and then bring your physical record to Georgetown for them to see”, the Minister added.

And in an effort to protect a patient’s data and information, with the establishment of the EHR systems, Anthony disclosed that a National Data Prevention Act has been established. “Now because we’ve been collecting data in such a manner, we want to prevent data breaches and so we’ve passed legislation called the National Data Protection Act and in this, if someone takes someone’s personal information and leaks it or uses it in a very irresponsible way, then that person starting fine would be $20 million, while an institution that does the breach, starting fine will be $100 million.”

The health minister also disclosed that the seven regional hospitals will have accommodation to house acute psychiatric patients.

Meanwhile, UNICEF Representative, Akhtar, informed that this programme is one of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. And the PAHO/WHO Representative, Dr Codina, stated that with the new legislation and mental health plans, mental health cases in Guyana will be transformed.