Advocate: Make space for parents in mental health conference

Parent rights campaigner Paula-Ann Moore has urged an upcoming Caribbean psychology summit to place parents at the heart of efforts to tackle youth mental health crises, warning that excluding families risks undermining support for vulnerable children.

She told the Caribbean Regional Conference of Psychology (CRCP 2025) pre-launch event that meaningful support for young people cannot be achieved without parental involvement. She warned of increasing cannabis use among adolescents and the enduring psychological scars left by the pandemic.

“You cannot foster the best in a child without having a parent as an integral part of that collaborative effort,” Moore told organisers.

The activist, who began campaigning after the 2020 education crisis, said parents were frequently marginalised in conversations about children’s wellbeing.

She emphasised the need for love, emotional security, and structured home environments, citing research by Christina Núñez: “Mental disorders are the greatest cause of the burden of disease in the world…. Most of the disease burdens affecting adults has its onset during childhood and adolescence.”

Moore added: “Children and young people who experience positive support from parents and teachers develop psychological resilience.”

She criticised outdated attitudes that silence children, noting: “We have the saying, ‘children should be seen and not heard.’ Children complain they aren’t heard to the extent they’d like.” Behavioural issues, she stressed, often reflect unmet needs: “Sometimes they may act out in behaviours that are a cry for help.”

The advocate expressed particular concern about cannabis use: “Many adults don’t realise how harmful it is to the developing brain and how that impacts mental health and behaviours.”

She also highlighted pandemic-related trauma, recalling forums where children described being chastised for pandemic-era academic struggles: “The cries for help those children gave… will stay with me forever.”

Moore acknowledged parental challenges, including limited resources and socioeconomic barriers. “Knowledge, the resources we don’t know where to go to when we need help — obviously socioeconomic factors are a huge issue,” she said.

The CRCP 2025 conference, running from June 9-13, focuses on building mental health resilience under the theme “Building Mental Health Resilience: Empowering Our Communities”. The event, organised by the Barbados Society of Psychology in partnership with the Caribbean Alliance of National Psychological Associations (CANPA), aims to unite psychologists, educators, and parents to address regional mental health needs.

Moore closed by urging a dedicated conference space for parental input.

“It’s excellent that psychologists can actually hear from us in a more structured way,” she said. “Let us work together to help our children thrive—not just survive.”

(LG)