Over 500 Jamaican school professionals to receive mental health training

Over the next three months, more than 500 school professionals from Jamaica’s 177 secondary schools will receive mental health training through the Government’s School Mental Health Literacy Program.

The program was launched at Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort & Spa in Hanover on Thursday, October 6.

The program is part of an effort to develop a curriculum on how to respond effectively to students’ mental health issues and conditions, promoting awareness in schools to improve students’ attitudes, confidence, and knowledge while also reducing the stigma associated with the common issue.

The $10-million effort, led by the Ministry of Health and Wellness in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Youth, will enable trained educators, school nurses, and guidance counsellors to provide mental health first aid to the island’s 21,000 grade nine students.

“School is a fertile soil for developing good habits as well as for bad habits to be promulgated. So, it is natural that we have to start there,” said Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. Christopher Tufton, while addressing the launch of the programme.

Tufton said while mental health affects all aspects of society, emphasis must be placed on the youth.

He added that if mental health is not addressed, society will continue to worsen in terms of antisocial behavior and how people treat themselves and others.

“This Government's School Mental Health Literacy Programme is to outline very specific types of intervention and mainstream those interventions. We can't afford any more to intervene only based on circumstances and events, as opposed to developing an intervention,” he said.

Tufton added that to offer mental support, the program will focus on mental health and improve holistic being.

“So, what this is intended to do is to look at mental health in a way that enhances the holistic being, we have to work on it. We don't just intervene to cure but we provide mental health support, and that's what's going to happen at the level of the schools,” he added.