ACE Institute pushing for mental health art therapy workshop in October

WESTERN BUREAU:

The St James-based Accredited Certification Expedited (ACE) Institute, which specialises in helping students understand mental health management through its ‘Paint for Mental Health’ team-building workshops, is preparing for this year’s staging of its trademark art therapy and mental health programme, despite currently lacking official sponsorship.

According to the ACE Institute’s managing director, Lakin Wynter, this year’s staging will target 2,000 students from schools across St James with activities to include foreign language lessons, swimming and tennis lessons, and communication etiquette workshops. The organisation wants to start its activities on July 12, culminating in its highly anticipated October 10 mental health conference in Montego Bay to celebrate World Mental Health Day.

“We are looking tentatively to start on July 12, to do our swimming and our tennis classes. Funds from that will be channelled into our mental health initiative for World Mental Health Day on October 10, and the funds will be used to purchase paint, paintbrushes, and canvases, and to get an art instructor for an hour to guide the students through the exercise,” said Wynter.

“From there, we will organise an event where we will put together our keynote speakers. And then we will invite students from in and around the parish of St James to participate in the Paint for Mental Health creative team-building workshop,” Wynter explained. “The difficulties I am currently facing in this regard include getting money to secure the venue, to pay for advertisements, and to pay for the art instructor.”

MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT

The ACE Institute was formally launched in 2020 to highlight the connection between art therapy and mental health wellness for the benefit of everyone, not just those suffering from mental illness. It previously staged its annual conference at the Altamont West Hotel in St James on October 10, 2023.

Art therapy, which was introduced to Jamaica as a mental health profession as far back as 2017, uses visual art, such as paintings, drawings and sculpturing, as a method of improving physical health and emotional well-being.

Wynter, who has endured her own mental health challenges after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2009, said that this year’s staging of the Paint for Mental Health event is crucial because its planned 2024 staging was called off due to her suffering a bout of illness.

“I had received sponsorship last year to host this event, but I was not feeling well, so the event was not held. For this year, I would like to host an event in October, on World Mental Health Day, because mental health is something I hold very dear to my heart – not just because I am a mental health patient, but because many individuals suffer in quiet desperation and do not have a channel or a community that will give them advice or support,” said Wynter. “We utilise art as a means of expression, so that persons can channel their creative side and give a physical form to whatever it is that they are feeling internally.”

The issue of mental health awareness in Jamaica has come into the spotlight more than once in the last three years. Awareness efforts in this regard include the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ launch of the ‘U-Matter’ chatline in March 2022 to provide mental health support for Jamaican youth between the ages of 16-24, and the launch of a $10-million School Mental Health Literacy Programme in October that year, to give mental health training to 500 professionals across the country’s 177 secondary institutions over a three-month period.