Jodi-Ann Gilpin, Gleaner Writer

"Men are in crisis!" That was the reaction from popular pschchologist Dr Leahcim Semaj following the killing of two children in Trelawny allegedly by their father.

The psychologist has called for more to be done to assist men to vent their problems. He added that while women also abuse children, special attention must be placed on fathers as they tend to react violently to stress and problems.

"We have to find a way to help our men to talk about their problems because once it gets to that point where the depression, the hurt and the anger comes out, it is going to end ugly, no questions about that," he said.

"There are not enough options for men to talk about their problems and this should be a wake-up call to reach out more to our males. Women will talk, mothers always have their girlfriends to vent on or when they go to the hairdresser. Men only know the bartender, " he continued.

He added: "Once men have reached their boiling point, they see no other way out, than to just end it unless there is intervention, so if somebody had perhaps reached out to him (the father in Trelawny) things probably would have been different," he said.

Dr Barry Davidson, however, believes that the options are available, but men are shy to seek help. Davidson also charged parents to avoid taking out stress on their children.

"Men are afraid to seek help. I find that for my practice, men like to come at nights so as to make it seem as if everything is alright but, deep down, they are hurting and we have to find a way to help them get out of that fear because if this continues, even our most vulnerable will be at stake," he declared.

"Parents need to make themselves available to counselling centres around them and guidance counsellors need to understand that when a child acts up, there is probably some dysfunction in the family and so counsellors should not only assess the child, but ensure that the family is assessed, so as to avoid situations like these," said Davidson.