By Tracey Khan – Drakes
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Mental health and Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) will be further integrated into the primary health sector and placed on the front burner, according to Health Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsarran. He explained that two national action plans for mental health and NCDs will be launched later in the year.
According to him, the Ministry has gone a far way in its preparations for a NCD commission and they are looking to implement programmes at the grass root level that will be more easily accessible by the population, including mental health services.
As such, the Ministry will be giving health centers and other health care facilities a number of equipment to conduct basic testing.
He further explained that training of personnel to promptly recognize and deal with persons who have mental health issues at the community level is another area of priority by the ministry.
He believes that the public is being misled about the work that the ministry is doing, as he tried to explain that work is being done in the area of suicide and depression.
Ramsarran emphasized that suicide is everybody’s business and noted that the ministry will not shy away from its responsibilities in this regard.
Just recently there have been calls from civil society for government to place more emphasis on persons with mental health challenges and more resources into trained personnel.
