Georgetown: Guyana will once again be able to provide Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) to patients who are suffering from poor/weak mental health. The 19 members of the Canadian mental health team who are currently in the country handed over the necessary equipment to the National Psychiatric Hospital in New Amsterdam, Region Six.
Doctors and nurses at that facility are currently being trained on the use of the equipment by members of the visiting team. This Guyana-Canada collaborative initiative officially started in 2013 when a five-member team visited the country and some of the health facilities and met with health officials including Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran.
Speaking on a special programme with Director of the Government Information Agency, Neaz Subhan that was aired on the National Communications Network, team leader, Dr. Peter Kuhnert expressed the hope that this collaborative venture can become a multi-year initiative.
ECT is a tool for psychiatric treatment that has been around for over 50 years. It was available in Guyana as late as 1985. It is a method that is used to treat extreme depression for example cases where people have lost the ability to eat and drink.
“When people lose sensitivity to this urge they can starve themselves to death or dehydrate themselves to death. In a case like this, it is a live-saving therapy; it is more effective than drug therapy,” Dr. Kuhnert explained.
ECT is standard treatment around the world available to psychiatrists in the appropriate cases where depression is so severe that it becomes life-threatening. It basically allows for the brain to be rebooted so as to regulate the neuro-chemical imbalances witihin. This treatment is very effective and has a higher success rate than drug-therapy for depression.
Already a number of patients from the National Psychiatric Hospital have been identified to undergo this therapy.
Dr. Kuhnert said that mental health is about how people perceive life and how they react when they are angry, frustrated and/or happy. It has both good and bad aspects; however, when a person’s mental health starts to breakdown then disorders begin to develop.
This means that a person will develop a disordered way of understanding his/her reality which will in turn limit his/her ability to function effectively. On the other hand, a person with sound mental health will have the resilience to find solutions to difficult situations rather than despairing.
“When we lose our capacity, resilience and start to take on a negative understanding of our world… this can become a pervasive part of our lives and this can lead to depression,” the doctor said.
Often times, people who experience this kind of depression, try to treat their unhappiness with alcohol and drugs. Some people may need to be placed in a protective environment so that they can regain their mental balance.
Once depression lasts for more than two weeks, it becomes a physical illness. Dr. Kuhnert explained that neuro-chemicals send messages to various parts of the brain and when depression becomes an illness some of the neuro-chemicals go off balance. ECT is one method through which the chemical imbalances could be realigned.
Recognising the importance of this issue, the Ministry of Health will be launching its National Mental Health Strategy in February next year. The priorities of the plan are to fight against suicide and promote good mental health include providing comprehensive and responsive mental health and social care in communities.
