Clik here to view.
Speaking out in the face of stigma
Whenever I speak about my health challenges, people become discomfited and I have to reassure them that I’ve set aside pride and prejudice and faced myself comfortably with the idea that I could become...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sexual abuse—know the signs
Very often during peer counselling, I come across sexual abuse survivors. In fact, it has been a common occurrence of my suspicions being almost always proven correct among those presenting with mental...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Suicide—one death every 40 seconds
Suicide always grabs our attention. And when it is a celebrity who has suicided, the outpouring is unusually intimate as many people express condolences to and about these stars as though they grew up...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What’s your sign, girl?
People are always asking what are the signs of mental illness; I am forever trying to answer that with first teaching what are the signs of mental wellness.“Good mental health isn’t just the absence of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Life is a series of fluctuations
“We teach competitiveness at every level of life. Never cooperation. Never getting along.Cradle to grave is dog-eat-dog.Win or lose. Mines not yours. I better than you. I deserve, you don’t. I get, is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We need to embrace love and respect for others
Being able to exercise judgment is a desired quality in order to become a good decision maker. It is a great asset in assessing people and selecting personalities for relationships. Every parent,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Suicide discourse plagued by myths, judgment
TRIGGER WARNING: This feature contains sensitive information on suicide, suiciding and death by suicideBefore I saw the Facebook tag from author Joanne Haynes, I had already jumped on the ideas in her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Words can hurt more than sticks and stones
I’m known to have a sharp tongue. A hot-mouth is what they called me and so over the years I’ve laboured on maturing in that area and, well, I’m still enrolled.I own books like Words That Hurt, Words...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We all need to learn to suspend judgment
As I approached the team-building exercise at the St Mary’s Children’s Home last week, all I could consider was the importance of the term and principle called suspending judgment. It is an element—a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Same stress, different response
I have learned the reason people respond differently to any situation. “Psychologists will categorise our range of reactions, including emotions, by several theories,” says Psychology Today.These...
View ArticleClik here to view.
And, what of the wellbeing of police officers?
I live here and for my own wellbeing I would rather that T&T has a well-educated and highly-trained, professional police service. It would be to my personal benefit and could mean better security...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Proof that police can shoot and not kill?
In the continuing quest to determine how well police are equipped to treat with the mentally ill, especially in crisis, nothing as yet has provided any source of comfort on the matter. No one seems to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Police and the mentally ill: Are they or aren’t they trained?
Minister Dillon: Yes, they areIn April 2017, following the death of Raymond Joseph who was shot three times by municipal officers inside the Point Fortin Area Hospital, Fyzabad MP Lackram Bodoe had put...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Are police trained to deal with the mentally ill?
There are those in authority who have said that police are trained to treat with the mentally ill and there are also those in authority who assure us that police are not trained to deal with those...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Outstanding mental health advocacy at ‘Inside Out’
Theatre has been used for and as advocacy for decades.It is not unusual to employ the creative and performing arts to carry society’s deepest and often obscurest messages.But visualising mental health...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Are police trained to deal with the mentally ill?
Today marks the six-year anniversary of Mental Health Matters. To mark this day, I wish to remember a few people who died because instead of getting to a doctor, hospital or their medicine, they were...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Depression is common, treatable
Everyone experiences episodes of unhappiness, grief, and stress and has felt saddened or taken to an extreme low which we sometimes call the “blues.” The loss of a job, divorce, broken relationships,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
T&T crying out for intervention
We need a public health intervention for what has gone on here far too long as an issue without leadership. I acknowledge that there have been small pockets of efforts but for the most part we behave...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Doing things differently can unlock happiness
In this life, happiness is not a given but it is an idea so well propagated that everyone I know is either holding out for or working towards that fountain of never-ending joy. People are as busy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mental health is not the same as mental illness
Why is it so very easy to immediately think of mental illness once we hear the words mental health?Much of the conversations people have had about mental health focuses on mental illness. But there’s...
View Article
