Monday, September 9, 2024

4 THE STAR NEWS • Monday, September 9, 2024 @JamaicaStar www.facebook.com/JamaicaStar • www.jamaica-star.com TIFFANY TAYLOR STAR Writer G rieving the sudden death of a relative has not been easy feat for Mary*. For the past decade, she has been living with a constant reminder that her father, who was a security guard, never returned home after picking up an extra shift. “I still hear my mother’s screams, her wails of pain echo in the back of my head all the time,” the 25-year- old said. “He told my mother him soon reach home, him a go stop at a shop and get something to bring home for myself and two other siblings. It was a routine for him to bring home something for us,” she recalled. Mary’s father was killed during a robbery attempt in a shop in their rural St Catherine community. “We [herself and two younger siblings] were so young at the time, trying to understand what was happening. Seeing him go down in the ground still lingers in my head all the time. It play over in my head every day. I still wait on a phone call just to say, ‘Me still deh here, me soon come home’,” the nail technician shared. As a pre-teen, she struggled to accept her changing reality, and her behaviour at home worsened. She started skipping school, was disrespectful to her mother, and sometimes shunned her family. In 2016, she was diagnosed as being clinically depressed, just years after starting secondary school. Mary also struggled with anxiety, and even harboured suicidal thoughts as life got harder with the loss of the family’s breadwinner. “My mother had to work more than one job to provide for the family. It got rough on us because he was the glue that held us together. But I’ve been trying to give myself grace, I have been taking it a day at a time and slowly finding myself through the hurt,” she said. At the 2023 opening session for the 15th annual World Suicide Prevention Day Seminar, Minster of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton shared that data gathered between “2021 and 2022 indicate an increase in the number of persons in Jamaica committing suicide”. Sixty- four persons committed suicide in 2022, up from 51 reported suicides in 2021. Up to September 2023, some 52 persons had taken their lives. The news team was unable to get the latest figures. September is Suicide Prevention Month, and Dr Marlon Simpson, licensed associate clinical psychologist, said he wants the topics of mental health and suicide will come up in multiple spaces, including churches. He especially wants young adults to hear about mental health and suicide links to mental illness. “I think talking to unattached youth definitely [will help]. And in the school system, I think the guidance counsellors would have to find a way to incorporate it into the school curriculum, because it is a very sensitive topic and you don’t want to give children any ideas,” Simpson argued. He explained that Jamaicans are living in a stressed society, coping with the rise in the cost of living and the demands of daily life. He noted that although people deal with the stressors of life, it may not necessarily lead them to commit suicide. He suggested that Caribbean people, both males and females, feel like they don’t have anybody to talk to so they internalise many things. “People do go through traumatic situations, but I don’t think it is contributing more than usual to suicide levels,” he said. However, Simpson surmised that there is not enough of an emphasis on mental health because of how it is perceived as being only for weak people. “But it is really a serious situation and it definitely needs more attention, and not just during the month. For us as mental health professionals, there should be more opportunities like this for us to reach the masses throughout the year, through seminars and webinars,” he added. Simpson, the director of Loving Minds Associates, urged persons struggling with mental health to talk to someone, and not just a professional. “Write down some of your stressors. You may not share it with other people, but getting it out on paper [helps], [as well as] spending quality time with family if you can, or taking five-minute breaks at a time. It is not even talking ‘bout the issue, but taking your mind off that thought process for a while to actually clear your mind,” he said. Simpson opined that mental health needs t0 be a priority, especially among men, who may not feel like there are safe spaces for them to talk, or that their secrets will be revealed. *Name changed to protect identity . September is Suicide Prevention Month wants more emphasis on MENTAL HEALTH Psychologist wants