Here we are: Oc­to­ber 10, World Men­tal Health Day 2020. Di­vine in­ter­ven­tion, I thought, be­cause it fell at the end of the week in which our 2020-2021 na­tion­al bud­get was pre­sent­ed. I wait­ed, hold­ing my breath in an­tic­i­pa­tion. Then I had to tell my­self: “Breathe, Maria, Breathe.” I got a list of the key take­aways from the bud­get, and there were thir­teen (13) key take­aways, with the Min­istry of Health be­ing third on the list of the re­cip­i­ents. Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and Ed­u­ca­tion were the top two in the break­down of the na­tion­al bud­get.

The theme for World Men­tal Health Day 2020 is “Men­tal Health for All – Greater In­vest­ment, Greater Ac­cess, Every One, Every­where.” The Pres­i­dent of the World Fed­er­a­tion of Men­tal Health (WFMH) paints a bleak glob­al pic­ture. She com­ments on the sur­veys WHO did be­tween 2001, 2012 and 2018: 450 mil­lion peo­ple live with men­tal dis­or­ders and it is the lead­ing cause of ill-health and dis­abil­i­ty world-wide.

One in four per­sons will be af­fect­ed by a men­tal health dis­or­der at some stage in their lives, while men­tal, neu­ro­log­i­cal and sub­stance use dis­or­ders ex­act a high toll on health out­comes—ac­count­ing for 13 per cent of to­tal glob­al bur­den of dis­ease. In 2018, WHO stat­ed that every 40 secs some­one dies by sui­cide. While 79 per cent of glob­al sui­cides oc­cur in low and mid­dle in­come coun­tries.

T&T is third in the re­gion, af­ter Guyana (44.2) and Suri­name (27.8). Over­all, T&T ranks at num­ber 41 out of 170 coun­tries, with more sui­cides per 100,000 peo­ple than even the Unit­ed States, which ranks at 50. T&T’s sui­cide rate has in­creased in re­cent years, and many cas­es have been at­trib­uted to failed re­la­tion­ships and fam­i­ly is­sues.

Eco­nom­ic prob­lems have al­so been a con­tribut­ing fac­tor, ac­cord­ing to Pro­fes­sor Ger­ard Hutchin­son, Head of Clin­i­cal Med­ical Sci­ences at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies. The most com­mon method of sui­cide, ac­cord­ing to Hutchin­son, is poi­son­ing us­ing dead­ly pes­ti­cides such as gramox­one.

Our sit­u­a­tion in my beloved coun­try is bleak. Per­sons still have to wait months for ser­vice. They call and call for help and phones are not an­swered. Now we have the freez­ing of all va­can­cies in the pub­lic ser­vice for a year. All mem­bers of grad­u­at­ing class­es of 2020 will be im­pact­ed.

I know that we will have to help them to take deep breaths and use re­lax­ation tech­niques and pos­i­tive thoughts, when anx­i­ety, frus­tra­tion, in­tense fear em­a­nat­ing from thoughts of help­less­ness, over­whelm them. Our Men­tal Health Ser­vices will be even more bur­dened than they al­ready are and not one bil­lion of the many bil­lions was pri­or­i­tized for our Men­tal Health Ser­vices.

Dear Grad­u­at­ing Class of 2020, please send out as many re­sumes as you can. Search all pos­si­ble web­sites, if at home is not avail­able then search for­eign. Re­mem­ber that the world is work­ing on-line and be­ing paid is not a prob­lem.

A very am­bi­tious stu­dent ap­plied to a for­eign uni­ver­si­ty to do her Mas­ters af­ter her first de­gree at UTT. She was ac­cept­ed and in spite of the rain, she is see­ing her fu­ture very clear­ly. There are stu­dents help­ing small groups of chil­dren with their on-line class­es in their com­mu­ni­ties.

Par­ents who need help, this is how you can help when you have to go to work. You can sup­port the grad­u­ate by work­ing out a stipend for their time and help. In­for­ma­tion is al­so avail­able on What­sApp. Friends share with friends, sup­port­ing each oth­er. Re­spond to what is rel­e­vant to your skills.

A young la­dy did that and got a re­sponse from UNICEF and she got a three-month con­tract to work on a project. Her name is now on their radar. I know as mil­len­ni­als, you have high ex­pec­ta­tions of us and those who lead you. You will have to low­er those ex­pec­ta­tions while in this de­pressed econ­o­my.

Pe­ter Druck­er, a Man­age­ment Ex­pert tells us: “The best way to pre­dict the fu­ture is to cre­ate it”. Be­lieve you me. It works. Get help if you need to shake off that help­less, stuck feel­ing and be­gin to cre­ate and chart your own fu­ture. The Fu­ture is Yours.

An­na Maria Mo­ra

Coun­selling Psy­chol­o­gist