Diagnosis zero
Fear of stigma, medications leave children showing signs of mental illness without proper interventions
MANY JAMAICAN children with mental health disorders are not getting access to the required interventions that could make them productive members of the society in their later years.
As a result, several of these youngsters end up turning to a life of crime, according to consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Ganesh Shetty.
Shetty, who has more than 30 years’ experience working in the area of mental health, particularly with children, said many of them also present with learning and intellectual disabilities.
The psychiatrist, who is based at the Child Guidance Clinic at the Comprehensive Health Centre at Slipe Pen Road in Kingston and who sees children with varying emotional behavioural disorders on a daily basis, said not nearly enough of them are being treated.
“In Jamaica, just one in every 20 children is attended to, while in the United States, it is one in every three. For Canada, it is one in five,” Shetty told The Gleaner.
He explained that up to 15 per cent of children in a population could present with some form of mental health issue. With an estimated 930,000 children in Jamaica’s overall
population of roughly 2.8 million people, approximately 140,000 could have a mental health or learning disorder.
Shetty explained that 10 per cent of the 930,000 – or about 93,000 – children will need some form of professional diagnosis, with a significant number needing some form of counselling to cope with such issues as a parent migrating or other problems in the home, community, or school. Such counselling, Shetty said, could be done by the school, the Church, or conducted within the community.
However, he said that roughly 46,000 Jamaican children are presenting with mental health issues that are deemed to be severe and which will require professional intervention, including hospitalisation and medication.
According to Shetty, the professionals who cater to these children, and their parents, are faced with significant challenges.
“Many of the parents refuse the medication for their children. You have some families that Google the side effects and then opt not to give the kids the drugs. They worry about possible side effects and tell us that the medication is for Bellevue patients,” Shetty revealed.
The Bellevue Hospital is the lone public mental health institution in Jamaica. At one point, it housed nearly 3,000 patients. The Government has increasingly moved away from institutionalised care to a more community-based care approach for mental health patients, significantly reducing the population at Bellevue.