Mental Health Days and Breaks: President of Barbados Society of Psychology Emphasizes the Importance Amid Rising Stress Levels

Mental health days for workers and mental health breaks for school children going into 2024 are what President of the Barbados Society of Psychology Ronald Pope has recommended, citing more stressed-out Barbadians.

Pope told Barbados TODAY that he has observed a wave of mental health challenges reported to healthcare institutions across the island and among people from all walks of life.

The psychologist expressed hope that there will be a renewed focus on self-care for Barbadians in the new year.

“As far as the workplaces are concerned and schools are concerned, mental health days are very important. I think that sometimes schools [can] have breaks where students can have a relaxed day…. As far as workplaces are concerned, I think it is more than necessary, extremely important, that they have mental health days. I find that persons are dealing with a lot at home, in the community, things that are going on in the world, and then come to work and have stress.

“When you go into some workplaces you can just look at the staff – you don’t have to have a counselling session with the staff – and see that they are stressed. I think that more workplaces need [mental health days] and not just think that it’s just a day off or lazy day. It is actually very necessary. As we go forward [in] 2024 and beyond, I would love to see more workplaces doing it,” Pope said.

It was his opinion that 2023 has been one of the most significant years in Barbados for mental health awareness in recent memory.

He acknowledged that while these issues were previously seen as too taboo to discuss openly, the challenges posed by COVID-19 and the notable instances of young people committing suicide this year had brought an uncomfortable subject back into focus.

Pope explained: “I would say that 2023 was a real eye-opener because coming from the pandemic period, a lot of persons were speaking about mental health, but as the pandemic eased up, persons started to go back to whatever they were doing before. So then we started to see the issues resurfacing again – the suicides and the certain behaviours we would see out in public. So it was a real eye-opener to the public to recognise that mental health is important and we should not lapse because COVID kind of eased.

“I did many talks at different organisations and they were really attuned to mental health. So I believe the public is becoming more aware, and this year saw persons recognising that it is really important, and not just a COVID-19 thing.”

Despite this greater interest in understanding mental health concerns, Pope noted that there is still significant stigma linked to the subject, which frequently limits the degree of feasible therapy.

“We find that persons are aware of mental health, but they don’t fully understand what mental health is,” the psychologist said. “So when you speak on mental health, they automatically say, ‘This means that I crazy?’, ‘This mean that I mad?’, ‘This mean that I got to go to the Psychiatric Hospital?’ So they automatically put a stigma [on] mental health and feel as though it is only the more chronic issues, and sometimes they refuse to go and get treatment, they refuse to go and talk to anyone.”

“I am hoping that in 2024 that they recognise that mental health is on a spectrum, it is vast, and the stigma is something that we have to get rid of,” the psychologist added.

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