Imagine your 5 year old self falling down and getting a cut; you’re bleeding and in pain. You run to your parents frightened and in need of comfort. A harsh “Stop the crying, you’ll be ok man cho” is what you are met with. Stunned at the abrasive response, you quickly dry up your tears as a band-aid is roughly placed on the cut.
Imagine that you are walking along the street and trip and fall (you’re a clumsy one aren’t you). You break your arm, the bone is sticking out, blood is spurting; it’s quite a mess. You run to the nearest person for help, obviously in pain. Some walk by, others run away in fright, finally someone stops, take a quick look and says “You arite man stop gwaan suh, is just a likkle break”. “Just a little break, don’t you see my bone sticking out?!” you scream. Finally you get some help at the local hospital. Because you waited so long for the arm to be attended to, you developed an infection and the arm had to be amputated. Imagine if you had gotten the proper first aid that you needed before reaching to the hospital, you would still have your arm.
Now imagine that you have been diagnosed with cancer. You head home to your family and friends to deliver the news and develop an action plan. You sit everyone down in the living room with tear-filled eyes and tell them the diagnosis. Silence and blank stares glare at you. They’re in shock, I’ll give them a minute, you think to yourself. Suddenly you hear someone hiss their teeth; “Cancer, ah dat you a waste wi time bout?! Snap out of it man, easy thing to fix, why all the drama?!”
Proper crisis response and first-aid can mean a world of difference in a crucial situation.
The scenarios described above may seem dramatic and unlikely but they do happen in actuality. One sphere where this occurs more frequently is in the area of mental and emotional health. Our peers experience something traumatic; loss of a loved one, sexual/physical abuse, loss of employment, violence or heartache and we tell them to “snap out of it”. We often see people displaying warning signs; change in mood/behavior, saying irrational things, displaying violent behavior; and we turn a blind eye and walk past their broken, blood-gushing arm.
The theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day is “Dignity in Mental Health – Psychological first aid”. This theme centers around basic pragmatic psychological support by people who find themselves in a helping role whether they be health staff, teachers, firemen, community workers, or police officers or regular Joe.
Mental and emotional health is a part of our entire being and as such we can experience issues/challenges in its functioning. So in the same way that I would need quick response in the case of a physical injury is the same way I would need quick response in the case of a mental/emotional challenge.
Anyone of us at any given time can be in need of psychological first-aid given life’s circumstances. Likewise any one of use can be in a position to render Psychological First-Aid to one of our peers. First in order for that to be done, we must do away with the stigma associated with mental and emotional health. Then we must outfit ourselves with the basic skills necessary to be a first-responder to those experiencing mental/emotional/behavioural challenges. It is my firm belief that anyone who has a job which involves much interpersonal interaction should have a basic knowledge of the signs of psychological ill-health so that they can respond appropriately. Now I do not mean that a customer service representative must counsel customers who seem to be taking out their anger on them. At the very least we should be able to identify these issues and choose not to respond “Nttn nuh wrong wid u, stop trying to get attention”. That kind of response can cause someone to shirk back into their hole of isolation reluctant to seek help again; we should offer a kind, comforting word instead.
Cancer, diabetes and other chronic illnesses are diseases which affect persons and their families and so does mental illness. It’s time that we stop locking people away and speaking shamefully in hushed tones about these issues. Persons living with and affected by mental illness did not choose their lot in life and are not to blame or be put to shame. They cannot exorcise it away, dip in healing waters or simply wish to feel better. Mental illness is wide and varied and is not only confined to manifestations that end up in murder or suicide. There are persons with biochemical illnesses such as Schizophrenia or Bipolar Depression, persons who struggle with grief such as death of loved one, persons who endure post-traumatic stress disorder such as sexual abuse or the Tivoli incursion and unfortunately the list goes on.
Let us do more for each other, let’s be our brother’s keeper. Let us aim for dignity in mental health as we strive for our overall health as individuals and as a nation.
Has the World Gone Mad 