Christopher Tufton | Prioritising mental health – from home to the workplace

I recently read with interest and was moved by the personal story of Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne in which he shared his family’s experience with mental illness.

The article was as timely as it was an urgent reminder of the imperative to work collaboratively and sustainably on solving the challenges of stigma, neglect, and social exclusion that too often embody the experiences of persons living with mental illness in Jamaica, but also across the Caribbean.

PM Browne’s reflections expose for us the persistent societal shortcomings as well as the policy and social implications of mental health, all of which warrant our collective attention. I commend him on his fearlessness and willingness in sharing his story.

It is a clarion call for Caribbean countries to continue in their efforts to raise public awareness about the promotion and protection of mental health while also pursuing interventions that address stigma as a barrier to care, tackle mental health as a policy priority, examine the economic and social costs associated with mental health, and design evidence-informed approaches to holistic care.

This issue is being addressed in Jamaica through the design and implementation of Problem Management Plus, which meets people where they are in communities to provide them with the space and the tools to overcome adversity that can impact their mental wellness.

There are number of helplines, among them 888-NEW-LIFE, U-Matter, and SAFE SPOT, which provide safe spaces where people, young and old, can feel heard and be referred for care. In 2023, the 888-NEW-LIFE line saw a total of 3,177 calls – on tousand seven hundred and eighty-seven female callers, 680 males, and 710 from persons of unknown gender.

The calls addressed a range of mental health challenges – from suicidal ideation to emotional distress, anxiety, intrapersonal relationship challenges, COVID-19-related stressors, depressive episodes, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and crisis interventions.

There are also more than 150 adult mental health clinic sites and more than 20 adolescent mental health clinic sites islandwide. These resources are complemented by the ongoing anti-stigma campaign, ‘Do Your Share’, which includes a series of ‘wellness check-ins’ for schools and the donation of a Wellness Bench, which has become a symbol for safe spaces and a tool to promote communication about mental wellness.

There is also the School Mental Health Literacy Programme and the training of non-psychiatric primary and secondary healthcare practitioners.

WORKPLACE WELLNESS

Over the next few months, work will be progressed on ghe National Mental Health Policy, which includes a workplace mental health policy framework to guide individual workplace policies while informing strategies to prevent psychological distress and build the resilience of workers.

The policy framework – which aligns with the recent global theme for World Mental Health, ‘It’s time to prioritise mental health in the workplace’ – is also to inform strategies for mental health screening, education, resources and benefits for all workers, as well as to intervene early with workers experiencing challenges to their mental health.

The fact is, most of our days are spent at work, and in today’s fast-paced, high-pressure world, work can become a source of significant stress thus contributing to the disease burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including mental illnesses on individuals, families, and society.

At the same time, there is a pervasive silence about mental health in the workplace. It is necessary to break this silence since the reality is that deadline pressures, the need to balance personal and professional lives, and dealing with difficult colleagues and work situations make mental health challenges a feature of the world of work.

Further, four in every 10 people are likely to develop a mental health challenge over the course of their lives while poor mental health leads not only to decreased productivity – as we see reflected in data from the World Health Organisation – but also higher levels of absenteeism and staff turnover.

LEADERSHIP

We must, therefore, create workplaces where people feel heard and where there are mental health resources that they can readily and willingly access in a confidential manner. It is also important to normalise conversations about stress, anxiety, and other mental health disorders in the workplace, and in so doing, tackle stigma, which remains one of the most significant barriers to care.

I encourage chief executive officers, managers, and supervisors to lead from the front on this. When leaders – adopting the example set by Prime Minister Browne – discuss mental health, it sets the tone for others to do the same.

Meanwhile, the rising prevalence of mental health conditions in the Caribbean, particularly in the wake of COVID-19, is a prevailing public health concern. To complement national mental health efforts, therefore, we need sustained and scaled-up regional collaboration.

Already, we have the Caribbean NCD, Nutrition, Mental Health Focal Point Network, which meets periodically to share best practice and learning towards accelerated action on NCDs, including mental illness, across the region.

The Caribbean has received tangible support from the Pan-American Health Organization, including in the area of training and capacity building for mental health in disaster settings as well as in the delivery of mental health and psychosocial support. We must build on those efforts, given prevailing vulnerabilities in our small island developing states, including the threat of natural disasters, which can trigger or otherwise exacerbate mental health challenges.

I, too, endorse the call for a CARICOM summit on mental health, providing for member states the opportunity to settle and elaborate this collaborative response, sharing not only knowledge and experiences, but also financial and human resources for mental health and bearing in mind our individual country and regional circumstances.

My vision for such a summit is that it takes its cue from the Jamaica Moves programme, which gave birth to Caribbean Moves, an essential additional platform to enhance the momentum of national efforts for the prevention and control of NCDs and their risk factors.

I join Prime Minister Browne in affirming my commitment to advocacy on this issue, to enable partnerships, sustain efforts in public education, and collaboratively increasing the available resources for persons with mental illness to enter and stay in care.

Christopher Tufton is minister of health and wellness and member of parliament for St Catherine West Central. Send feedback to cctufton@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.