Volunteers In Mental Health Response Programme Eager To Serve

Volunteers in the recently established COVID-19 Mental Health Response Programme say the training they have received will enable them to assist persons facing mental challenges to get some relief.

The programme has commenced with 30 community volunteers, and will shorty expand to 150 persons trained by the Jamaica Red Cross and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), to reach persons, especially the elderly, who have had to remain at home as a result of measures to control spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Young volunteer, Shavina Lennon, says they did not “hesitate” when the call was made for persons to give of their time in reaching others.

“If there has ever been a time when we need to support each other, it is now,” she said at their recent virtual graduation ceremony.

“It is up to each of us to take the step and identify those in need, and assist them in the best way we can. If you are yet to join the fight against the implications of COVID-19, help find it, and make in happen,” she said, adding that the programme provides an avenue for the volunteers to be “serving in this meaningful manner”.

Another young volunteer, Nevileen Williamson, shared that she willingly joined the initiative because “mental health is important to me, and with COVID-19, special emphasis should be placed in this area, as a lot of people are struggling”.

“I would encourage others to join this programme; it is a wonderful opportunity to help our brothers and sisters during COVID,” she told JIS News.

For his part, Tevin Johnson said he was “inspired” to be part of the programme, as he saw fist-hand the pain of persons who had been affected by the pandemic.

Mr. Johnson said when he talked to them and offered counselling, it dawned on him that he should be part of a formal process to help, and since then, he is more convinced that it is “my duty to help a few people suffering from mental health”.

The ‘Reach Out Rangers’, as the volunteers have been called, have been trained in Basic Psychological First Aid, provided by the Jamaica Red Cross, and deployed across communities where they reside.

They are required to assist the health service with information on persons who need extended care and support.

Head of the Red Cross, Hope Munroe, said the volunteers have taken an enlightened step to serve their fellow citizens at this time, “as our staff and volunteers have seen and heard the fear, anxiety and mental anguish being experienced by many Jamaicans, as a result of the pandemic”.

Miss Munroe added that the Red Cross stands committed to help in national emergencies, and the Ministry of Health and Wellness must be commended for its many moves to lessen the effects of the COVID-19 crisis.

She said the Reach Out Rangers will help to mitigate the “mental health issues that have emerged, and we pledge our full support to this programme”.

Meanwhile, Director of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in the Ministry, Dr. Kevin Gouldbourne, said with the support being provided by the volunteers, “some persons will be prevented from becoming mentally ill, and even if some become mentally ill, having that support will facilitate early and optimal recovery”.

For his part, portfolio Minister, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, said the volunteers have gone through training in mental health management and are “now ready, based on the trainers and assessors, to provide the ‘reach out’ that is so necessary, and that is why we have appropriately named you the ‘Reach Out Rangers’.”

Dr. Tufton said there is a growing list of persons who require coping mechanisms, and “we must act quickly and decisively to address the need of those among us… of mental health and social support.”

The Minister noted that the volunteers will serve at the community level, in tandem with intervention teams and the Ministry’s Mental Health and Suicide Helpline, 888-639-5433.

“We can help to avert the negative financial implications associated with the failure to constructively and consistently engage on mental issues. Mental health is a big issue, even before COVID, and it is a bigger issue now,” Dr. Tufton said.

The Minister pointed out that mental health will have a bearing on the economic recovery of the country, because mental health affects economic health, and the volunteers’ role in preserving and protecting the population is part of the “economic recovery imperative that is required to drive us back to where we were, and beyond”.