The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Development, Dr. Bonnie Richardson-Lake, met on Tuesday, 19th July with Gender Development Coordinator, Kemoloy Murphy; Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Olufunmike Banks-Devonish; and Community Services Planner, Mrs. Hyacinth Bradley for the re-launch and amplification of the 4C’s project – Comfort through Crisis, Conflict and Covid.
In her remarks on the project, Mrs. Richardson-Lake said: “The 4C’s project is a programme that is funded through the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) which is concerned about mental health issues and the development of mental health services in the countries that it serves.
“The Ministry of Social Development has been always concerned about mental health issues, and we deemed this as a good opportunity for us to get some additional funding from PAHO to activate some of our mental health programmmes.”
She continued: “We notice that during the Covid pandemic there were high incidences of psychological distress, depression and anxiety. Of course, these issues existed before the Covid, but the pandemic really brought them into focus, and our PAHO developmental partners reached out to us with their support.”
Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Olufunmike Banks-Devonish, echoed the statement of Mrs. Richardson-Lake, as regards the heightened rate of psychological imbalances during the Covid era: “Indeed, during Covid, mental health issues on Anguilla were on the rise. We saw that many persons were going through depression and experiencing anxiety at a higher level during the Covid shutdown than was seen prior to the pandemic.
“During this time many people were out of work and they were particularly concerned about how they would support their families. Between the period January to April 2020 there was an 80% increase in domestic violence reports, and this was extremely alarming. This was due to increased tension in the home, as family members were spending time at home more than usual.”
She admitted that this was quite a challenging time for her in her field of work, as due to protocols it was rather inconvenient for her to carry out the required interventions. “So,” she said, “eventually a team of ten of us, consisting of mental health and psycho-social support professionals came together to create a number of intervention programmes with the strong support of PAHO. It is from the creation of these programmes that the 4C’s project came about. Through this project, we are able to create mental health awareness in our communities.”
Mrs. Hyacinth Bradley spoke about some of the things that were done through the 4C’s project. “After receiving the funds from PAHO in 2021,” she said, “we launched a number of interventions: We purchased emergency support packages for survivors of gender-based violence; we conducted nine sessions of mental health training over a three-month period which were specifically geared towards men who are employed in the security sector. We were also able to purchase a number of security cameras for the White Cedar Place of Safety.”
“In addition,” said Mrs. Bradley, “We were able to develop a directory which we call the ACIST directory. ACIST (Anguillla Crisis Intervention Support Team) directory is a comprehensive document, containing the identity of a list of trained personnel who can provide psycho-social support, psychological first-aid, and disaster management in times of crisis. We also conducted a series of interventions with our senior citizens across the island.”
Commenting on these interventions, she said that the sessions were done virtually online via smart TVs that were purchased though the programme, and it was very rewarding to see how the seniors responded in interacting with their loved ones through this medium.
Mrs. Bradley said that her Ministry is doing all it can to bring awareness to mental health issues and to provide intervention for persons who are affected. She said that people must accept the fact “that it is OK to not feel OK” at times, and such affected persons can always get support from the 4C’s Mental Health Hotline by dialing 7233 – SAFE.
