RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Don­na Cox says over 1,800 emo­tion­al dis­tress calls were re­ceived by the Na­tion­al Cri­sis Hot­line be­tween Oc­to­ber 2024 and Jan­u­ary 2025, re­flect­ing the ris­ing men­tal health con­cerns across the na­tion.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Cox said since the launch of the hot­line on No­vem­ber 22, 2022, 7,867 calls have been re­ceived.

Giv­ing a break­down, she said be­tween 2022-2023, a to­tal of 2,200 calls came in, while 3,816 came in from 2023-2024, and 1,851 calls in the most re­cent four months.

Shar­ing the range of is­sues raised in these calls, Cox said they in­clud­ed “sui­cide ideation, men­tal health chal­lenges, gen­der-based vi­o­lence, fam­i­lies in cri­sis and sub­stance abuse.”

“The hot­line not on­ly of­fers im­me­di­ate sup­port but al­so func­tions as a vi­tal re­fer­ral path­way for in­di­vid­u­als need­ing men­tal health ser­vices,” she added.

Say­ing ex­ten­sive sup­port is avail­able, Cox said: “The Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Hot­line al­so serves as an ad­di­tion­al re­fer­ral path­way for per­sons in need of men­tal health sup­port.”

She em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of mak­ing these ser­vices avail­able to as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble, es­pe­cial­ly in times of cri­sis.

In ad­di­tion to the hot­line, the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment has been proac­tive in ad­dress­ing fam­i­ly-re­lat­ed chal­lenges through its com­mu­ni­ty par­ent­ing work­shops.

“Com­mu­ni­ty Par­ent­ing work­shops com­plet­ed last quar­ter were held in Diego Mar­tin and Ari­ma, fo­cus­ing on par­ent­ing chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties,” Cox ex­plained.

“These work­shops aim to equip par­ents with the nec­es­sary tools to man­age the com­plex­i­ties of rais­ing chil­dren with spe­cial needs,” she said.

The min­is­ter said sev­er­al more work­shops have been planned for 2025, in­clud­ing lo­ca­tions such as Bel­mont, Pleas­antville, Ch­agua­nas, Siparia/ Pe­nal, and El So­cor­ro/Aranguez.

“We will al­so con­duct grand­par­ent work­shops, par­ent­ing for men ses­sions, and vir­tu­al work­shops for moth­ers, along with sup­port groups for par­ents,” Cox added.

Over the past few months, sev­er­al in­stances of self-harm among chil­dren have trig­gered calls for more re­sources and sup­port for child men­tal health in T&T.

On Tues­day, chair­per­son of Life­line, Lucy Gabriel said there was a need to reach chil­dren in schools to pre­vent self-harm.

She re­vealed that Life­line re­ceives be­tween 15 to 85 calls per day but less than ten per cent of these are from peo­ple un­der the age of 18.

Al­though Life­line pro­vides a 24-hour toll-free helpline at 800-5588 for in­di­vid­u­als in cri­sis, Gabriel said a lack of re­sources has pre­vent­ed them from, reach­ing chil­dren in schools.

She em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of reach­ing out if there are con­cerns about a child’s well-be­ing.

“Call Life­line, and dis­cuss what you are ob­serv­ing. There is help avail­able that could make all the dif­fer­ence,” she urged.

This week alone, at least two teenagers end­ed their lives. These in­ci­dents re­port­ed­ly oc­curred in South and North Trinidad. On Tues­day, a Form Five stu­dent from South at­tempt­ed to jump off a build­ing.

If you or any­one you know has been bat­tling men­tal health chal­lenges please call 800-COPE; Life­line at 800-5588/866-5433/220-3636 or Child­line at 800-4321.