AS THE STOICS – and other philosophers among us – advise, people fear what they don’t understand; and, at times, even keep as far away as possible from the circumstance and its victims.
Unfortunately, mental health and care fall plumb in the centre of this discomfiture.
But it does not have to stay there. And, now that the president of the Barbados Association of Guidance Counsellors, Saul Leacock, has publicly raised his objection to the construction of a facility for children on the compound of the Barbados Psychiatric Hospital in Black Rock, St Michael, it just might begin to become an acceptable conversational topic.
As far as Mr Leacock is concerned, this much vaunted psychiatric clinic on the grounds of the Psychiatric Hospital – to which the Sandy Lane Children’s Trust has committed itself – is a backward step. The guidance counsellors’ leader has recommended instead that the much-needed clinic be built “at an independent, neutral place not connectedwith the Psychiatric Hospital”.
Mr Leacock appears subsumed by parents’ concern for the stigma attached to Barbados’ lone national psychiatric facility, and was somewhat miffed by the public announcement of parents having to take their children there in the near future. The ongoing stigma, he argued, was why the Child Guidance Clinic had now been located at one of the polyclinics instead.
Clearly, for some of us – more likely too many – psychiatric care is yet a matter that sends shivers and shame down our spines. But does it have to remain that way? Perhaps, by overtly and constructively speaking about it, we can normalise our reactions to it. Barbadians may just begin to understand and accept, and be comfortable with it.
Truth be told, the supporting and solidifying of this public stigma and the consequent fears and shame of parents will not help in giving the respect and dignity to mental health and psychiatric care thatthe two services deserve. Surely, the patients – adults or children – in need of such care are not all raving violent lunatics, a picture painted in the old days.
In these times, mental health and psychiatric care embrace the depressed and disoriented, who appear to be the much greater number.
As child rights advocate Felicia Browne rightly stated, we Barbadians must change how we look at mental health in our society.
Indeed, our young who are afflicted by “mental health diseases and mental health concerns, primarily depression”, must have a place for counselling and recuperation from which the taboo and the stigma related to psychiatric care have been removed.
Inculcating in our youth the belief our Psychiatric Hospital compound is to be kept far from, because of its perceived negative public image, ultimately will be to deny thousands of young Barbadians experiencing mental illness, or in need of psychiatric care, the panacea to their problems.
It is a manifestation of recklessness and stupidity having persons with mental illness not receiving attention, or failing to complete their course of care,for fear of shame to parents and relatives, and because of a stigma not rooted to common sense and, most definitely, enlightenment.
In effect, the prejudice towards the Psychiatric Hospital is tantamount to discrimination against mental care; and this is as disabling as the illness itself. This can only undermine our people attaining their personal health goals, and dissuade them from pursuing effective treatments.
For a nation reputedly highly literate, Barbados ought not to be allowing mental health stigma to dictate how the lives of its people will turn out to be!