May for many is when we recognise Child Month, while for others it is the month of the eagerly anticipated and celebrated Mother’s Day.
But May also carries with it other significance, especially in the United States. It is the period that has been declared Mental Health Month. This year, Britain will recognise Mental Awareness Week from May 10 to 16.
It would do us all some good in Barbados if we pay some extra attention to mental health, especially during these trying COVID-19 times.
Traditionally, we take the odd trip to the doctor to see about our blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels and blood pressure levels. For males, some focus is paid on having that prostate exam done. For females, mammogram and pap smear procedures become the focus.
But how many of us pay attention to our mental health? How many of us respect, embrace or understand the roles of psychiatrists or psychologists or even a counsellor?
This kind of thinking isn’t ingrained in us as a society. We often seem satisfied with just being able to say in passing: “Man, Jack [or Jill] mad, dem did so fuh years.”
We must move away from the callous approach we as citizens have when it comes to matters of mental health. Since COVID-19 the world has seen a rise in suicide cases. Some attribute it to the isolation measures, the losses many have suffered and the hardship that has come with the pandemic.
But we have not been spared.
In Barbados, we have recorded quite a few suicides within the past two years and worrisome is the fact that they have been mainly among the younger population.
And while the COVID-19 challenges have been hard on us all, many seem not to be able to cope. But outside of the pandemic people are struggling emotionally daily. And when it seems as though they cannot get a handle on the emotions that sometimes devour, they cave. At the point of submission, they see no other alternative than to end their own lives.
It becomes a sad end not only for them but all the loved ones they leave behind.
But this challenge of poor mental health, the inability to cope and the failure to co-exist within the social norms of a community have another ugly side to it.
On the odd occasion those who have lost control of their mental wellness, find themselves in strange and criminal predicaments.
Barbados TODAY reported the horrifying series of events that happened Wednesday on the South Coast.
The report read: “A man was arrested and 10 people were injured after a bizarre rampage in Worthing, Christ Church, Wednesday morning. Police said that around 10:15, they received reports that a man who was acting strangely had assaulted an individual while at a business. They later received several other reports of more people being attacked by a man matching his description. In all, six visitors and four residents were hurt, either by scissors in some cases or by being punched in the barrage of assaults, police said.”
As we reported, our readers reacted to the news in horror. Some likened the bloody ordeal to school shootings in the US. Others weighed in claiming the perpetrator had mental health issues brought on by recent personal events that affected his life.
We cannot speak to any of this. We cannot say whether the man who terrorised these 10 people was insane or lucid. The legal process will eventually determine that. But we can attest to the fact that the events that transpired did not resemble an individual showing that we are warm and friendly people.
Similar statements related to mental health were made on June 22 last year when the journalism fraternity lost one of their own, photojournalist Christoff Griffith, along with contract worker Glenroy James. Both died at the hands of the same alleged offender. That attack was much like this South Coast saga. Griffith, James, the workers of Turtle Beach and those at Sandals, were all injured while on their jobs seeking to earn an honest living.
Our heart goes out to the families and loved ones of those wounded in Wednesday’s rampage. It must be extremely traumatic for those who suffered directly at the hands of the offender.
But this constant cry in Barbados that a “mad man” did it, is getting extremely worrisome.
How many more “madmen” will be allowed to take the lives of innocent people? How many more “madmen” will walk off the street, enter a business and attack workers? How many more “madmen” will flip and inflict bodily harm on another?
In the instances where the offender is indeed proven to be mentally disturbed, then he too can be seen as a victim. He or she is a victim of a society that failed to take the issue of mental health wellness seriously and intervention was not forthcoming.
He or she is a victim of a society which callously and uncaringly walked by and said: “Man, Jack [or Jill] mad, dem did so fuh years.”
When will we take our mental health and that of others as seriously as we take the health of the body?
In 2021, we must do better by our brothers and sisters. Workplaces must do better for their workers. The church must do better by its membership. The Government must do better by its citizenry. We cannot continue to trivialise and make a mockery of mental health, only really taking it seriously when there is peril.
