RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Faced with sev­er­al re­ports of child sui­cides in re­cent months, Gen­der and Child Af­fairs Min­is­ter Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy says the Gov­ern­ment will soon es­tab­lish an On­line Di­rec­to­ry of Ser­vices for Chil­dren to help chil­dren, par­ents, guardians, and pro­fes­sion­als to quick­ly con­nect with es­sen­tial ser­vices.

This di­rec­to­ry will in­clude health­care, ed­u­ca­tion, coun­selling, and le­gal as­sis­tance.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Web­ster-Roy said a child-friend­ly web­site will al­so be de­vel­oped to host on­line cours­es on men­tal health, child rights, and child pro­tec­tion, as well as brochures, videos, and work­books. A health and well­ness fair will al­so be held for chil­dren, in­clud­ing those with dis­abil­i­ties, she added.

Web­ster-Roy said the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter—Gen­der and Child Af­fairs had been work­ing with stake­hold­ers to en­sure that sup­port and re­sources are avail­able.

These stake­hold­ers in­clude Child­line, the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty, the Men­tal Health Clin­ic of the Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty, the Na­tion­al In­sti­tute of High­er Ed­u­ca­tion, Re­search, Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy, the Com­mu­ni­ty Me­di­a­tion Ser­vices Di­vi­sion, the Labour In­spec­torate, Kids in Need of Di­rec­tion, Hope in Fit­ness TT, the Trinidad and To­ba­go As­so­ci­a­tion of Psy­chol­o­gists, the Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Di­vi­sion, the Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion, and the He­roes Foun­da­tion.

Re­spond­ing to con­cerns raised by Life­line’s chair, Lucy Gabriel, re­gard­ing child sui­cides, Web­ster-Roy said the Gov­ern­ment had been di­rect­ing par­ents, chil­dren, and the pub­lic to avail­able re­sources through so­cial me­dia, me­dia in­ter­views, and com­mu­ni­ty in­ter­ven­tions. (See Page 10)

“The min­istry has al­so part­nered with UNICEF to pro­vide child and youth men­tal health re­sources, in­clud­ing on­line and hard copy ma­te­ri­als. These re­sources, avail­able on www.young­caribbean­minds.com, in­clude work­books, videos, men­tal health ser­vice di­rec­to­ries, mind­ful­ness au­dio, pod­casts, apps, games, toolk­its, and oth­er sup­port ma­te­ri­als for Caribbean youth,” she added.

“These events tar­get­ed Stan­dard Four and Five stu­dents, aim­ing to re­duce ex­am-re­lat­ed stress and im­prove men­tal health re­silience. Par­ents were al­so giv­en in­for­ma­tion on signs of stress and men­tal fa­tigue in chil­dren and how to ac­cess help,” she added.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, two in­clu­sion and well­ness fairs were held for pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school stu­dents, in­clud­ing those from schools for the dif­fer­ent­ly abled.

When asked about in­creas­ing fund­ing for men­tal health ini­tia­tives in schools, Web­ster-Roy said the cur­rent bud­get al­lo­ca­tion for Gen­der and Child Af­fairs will con­tin­ue to sup­port men­tal health events and school vis­its fo­cused on chil­dren’s rights and child pro­tec­tion.

She not­ed that any fur­ther fi­nan­cial in­creas­es fall un­der the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and the Min­istry of Health.

Re­gard­ing plans to reach more chil­dren in com­mu­ni­ties, she said the Gov­ern­ment would con­tin­ue ef­forts un­der the Na­tion­al Child Pol­i­cy to en­sure chil­dren’s well-be­ing and holis­tic de­vel­op­ment.

Planned projects for 2025 in­clude a sit­u­a­tion­al analy­sis of chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties in To­ba­go to as­sess ser­vice gaps, the On­line Di­rec­to­ry of Ser­vices for Chil­dren, the child-friend­ly web­site, and the health and well­ness fair.

Web­ster-Roy said the Gov­ern­ment re­mained com­mit­ted to lever­ag­ing strate­gic part­ner­ships to pro­vide nec­es­sary sup­port and re­sources for chil­dren across the coun­try.

Over the past month, three teenagers have died by sui­cide in south, east, and north Trinidad. Sev­er­al an­ti-bul­ly­ing and sui­cide pre­ven­tion sem­i­nars have been rolled out in schools.

Child sui­cide came to the fore last year when Jay­den Lalchan, a Form Four stu­dent of St Stephen’s Col­lege, Princes Town, took his life on Oc­to­ber 3 to end years of phys­i­cal and ver­bal tor­ment at the hands of an­oth­er stu­dent. The po­lice in­ves­ti­gat­ed the mat­ter but lat­er said they could not find ev­i­dence to lay charges.