Raising mental health awareness in Barbados

The public will have an opportunity for their questions on mental health to be answered.

Starting in February, two organizations will host video and podcast educational sessions on the most important aspects of mental health.

SHE and Butterfly aim to provide information on mental health protocols in the Barbadian cultural context. They will provide specific information on where to go if help is needed and why mental health matters.

The video series will be coordinated by SHE Barbados and the podcasts by Butterfly Barbados. The series is funded by The Equality and Justice Alliance (EJA) in conjunction with the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE) and the Sweetwater Foundation.

The video and podcast productions are part of a special initiative that spans Barbados and the OECS territories and aims to support access to mental health services for all citizens, especially vulnerable persons like our women and girls and members of our LGBT+ populations.

Women, girls and members of the LGBT+ community are disproportionately affected when it comes to mental health services.

The videos, which will be featured on YouTube, Facebook and across other platforms will highlight the facts and statistics and demystify the myths about mental health in an Eastern Caribbean context.

They will further utilize storytelling to demonstrate the importance of increasing access and eradicating oppression in access to mental health treatment.