Youth mental health conference set for January
Published:Thursday | December 7, 2023 | 12:09 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
To help in bridging the gap between mental health support and creating a healthier environment for Jamaican youth to express themselves, the YourMindMatters project is set to host an adolescent mental health conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston on January 13 next year.
The project, which is sponsored by the United Kingdom’s foreign, commonwealth and development office, seeks to provide training and support to Jamaican children and teenagers aged 10 to 19 years, their parents and guardians, school guidance counsellors, and mental health experts.
Najuequa Barnes, chief project lead who spoke to the overview of the adolescent mental health campaign during the media launch held at the Liguanea Club in St Andrew on Monday, said adolescents who were “our future” were facing unique challenges in their community regarding their mental wellness.
“No longer should we be approaching adolescents with an ideology of deviant behaviour and putting them in the naughty corner. What we should be doing is seeking to understand the issues that they’re facing, educate ourselves so that we can better respond to them,” she said.
Social media campaign
In continuing, Barnes stated that the initiative was a two-fold one which would see the roll out of a social media campaign before the conference. The team, she said, is targeting 50 students across five schools and will be collaborating with the ministries of health and wellness and education and youth.
“Sustainability to this project is key. We don’t want to have a ‘talk shop’ ... we want something that will be impactful and effective,” she said, noting that the programme would be embedded into the required curriculum of schools to ensure that it “becomes an ongoing part of their educational journey”.
Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, who gave the keynote address, endorsed the upcoming conference, noting that the target of adolescents was fitting as they were the future generation.
“One of the things that I’ve come to terms with in public health is that some of us are very far gone and we have to prepare to manage cure, not prevention,” he said.