MINISTER of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has disclosed that the Psychosocial Support Intervention Programme (PSIP) is part of a larger psychosocial programme that the government is pursuing to build the capacity for such support.

He made this disclosure during a press conference on Monday at the Ministry of Education, 26 Brickdam, Georgetown to update the media on the programme.

The Ministry of Education with the support of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, Ministry of Health and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had initiated a psychosocial intervention programme targeting students, teachers, health workers, social workers, Parent Teachers’ Associations (PTAs) and communities in response to persons affected after the massacres in Lusignan, East Coast Demerara and Bartica.

Dr. Ramsammy noted that Guyana, like every country has faced and is likely to face in the future many kinds of events, whether it is a flood, a massacre or climate change events, which affects the society as a whole.

“Psychosocial support is an important part of the interventions…what is critical however, is that these psychosocial support is based on evidence informed therapeutic interventions”, he observed.

“…It is not just talking to people,” he pointed out.

The minister observed that psychosocial interventions and support does not have to be done by psychiatrists and psychologists only, hence Guyana is building that capacity where social workers and others can play an important role in complementing the job of a psychiatrist.

“We are ensuring that throughout Guyana, we build the capacity for people to be first responders…people who immediately appear on the scene to provide support,” the minister emphasized.

“…this is part of a bigger picture of building capacity in Guyana for psychosocial support,” he reiterated.

He also noted that the training of a mentoring group taken from various ministries is now mandated to take the training which will continue and extend it so that every community would have persons that are trained to provide an evidence informed therapeutic intervention.

“We stand ready to ensure that Guyana has a strong capacity to provide psychosocial support,” the minister assured.

Minister within the Ministry of Education, Dr. Desrey Fox, giving an update on the PSIP outlined several implementations carried out so far.

Awareness Consultation Programme
Dr. Fox said that this first activity targeted head teachers of 21 schools specifically to gather information on the results of massacre on the children within the education system.

The minister said that they were able to gather a number of responses as it relates to behavioural patterns of the children and additionally the teachers and parents.

Counselling and therapeutic sessions
She said this second phase targeted teachers to listen to their feelings and response.

The reports were alarming, how teachers felt about themselves. They could not sleep at night so they were feeling sleepy on the job, frustration, fear…some teachers had lost students as well,” she noted.

Consultations with the Parents and Teachers Associations (PTAs)
The minister said that this aspect aimed at sensitising the parents about the interventions and what is psychosocial support and counselling.

“If we did not have consultations with the parents and tell them what we were doing and our interventions then we would not have the support of the parents…we cannot counsel the children and then when they go home they do not have that support system,” she observed.

Assessment of students
Dr. Fox said this evaluation was done to identify the students’ for referrals and this was conducted by experienced social workers who collaborated with consultants from the University of Guyana (UG) and psychologists.

Those in the worst case were identified and the students were categorized as high, medium or low categories, she noted.

Counselling of students
The minister noted that this process commenced last March and is an ongoing process at the Lusignan Health Centre.

In this regard, she said that the training of welfare officers to equip them with the relevant knowledge in trauma counselling has begun to build capacity.

Establishment of child friendly places
She said this is important because the officers cannot counsel the children in the classrooms as a conducive environment is needed to do this.

Consultations with head teachers and parents in Bartica
Dr. Fox said the psychosocial support programme was extended to Bartica following the massacre there and was able to carry out immediate interventions and some training in Bartica has begun to build the capacity in that area.

Online trauma counselling training programme
This programme was done to upgrade skills of social workers working with the Psychosocial Support Intervention Programme (PSIP) and geared towards training social workers to become supervisors and mentors for staff working under their jurisdiction and volunteers, she explained.

Training of teachers in psychosocial support
This geared teachers to be first responders to emergencies in schools, she said.

Training in self-care
This programme helps social workers, school welfare officers and mental health officers to prepare themselves before and after counselling sessions.

The Joint Services
Dr. Fox said that the Joint Services will join the initiative noting that because of the constant request by the parents, teachers and students.

“This is because students have continuously and consistently revealed that they are afraid of camouflage clothing, policemen and gunshots and such,” Fox said.

“We believe that with the Joint Services on our side…we can have them go into schools and have friendly talks with our children which will be defining themselves again and to help to develop the image they have lost somewhere along the way,” she attested.

I am sure that the interventions as it relates to the Joint Services in this process will be positive,” she said.

Assistant Chief Probation and Social Service Officer within the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, Ms. Marva Williams said that the Ministry is working directly with families, in all types of trauma related incidents.

Social workers have been going into Lusignan and Bartica working directly with the families affected on a weekly basis.

Williams said the team of professional social workers has also been exposed to training hence the capacity is growing daily.

She said the Ministry has also been giving financial support to some traumatised families through the Ministry’s Difficult Circumstances Department as the Ministry is aware that psychosocial support is not only to focus on mental trauma but the physical, psychological and financial needs.

“The Ministry has been trying to look at this at a very holistic view…the team of social workers that are trained are also going to be part of an initiative of establishing an wellness centre in which we will have children who are traumatized receiving therapy,” she revealed.

…because we know that if those negative thoughts are not arrested early, those children will grow up with scars for life,” Williams said.

UNICEF Representative in Guyana, Mr. Yohannes Wedenig lauded that programme as an exemplary intervention with the collaboration of various ministries and organisations focusing on a protective environment for the children.

He noted that they must work towards ensuring there is a lasting capacity for the children who need the assistance the most.

Head of the Department of Sociology, University of Guyana, Ms. Barbara Thomas-Holder said the department was tasked with coordinating a number of workshops on psychosocial support for teachers to enable them to respond better to the traumatic experiences their students encounter and assist in reducing the impact of the trauma on the children.

The workshops had specific relevance to the Lusignan and Bartica massacres, she pointed out.

She however, advocated that there needs to be a more proactive approach where teachers across the country are trained to cope with various situations because events like the massacres also traumatize children from various areas.