Consultant psychiatrist, Dr. Nadia Wallace, has lamented the rising incidence of mental illness and suicide attempts in Dominica. Wallace attributed the incidence to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying factors such as job loss, anxiety, depression, and illness as responsible for the problem.
The consultant psychiatrist made this assertion on October 10 when the Mental Health Day was celebrated with the theme “Make Mental Health and Wellbeing for All a Global Priority”. She noted that anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder are the commonest mental illnesses in Dominica, saying these have led people to attempt suicide on a number of occasions.
Wallace stated that about 70% of people who attempt suicide in Dominica suffer from major depressive disorder. She urged people to be nice to people suffering from mental illness and not be nasty or cruel to them.
We have a negative, really nasty attitude towards the mentally ill and we need to stop this because we’re all human. Someone who is suffering from mental illness is a human also. They get sick; they have feelings; they have emotions and they have rights just like everybody else. But society tends to look down upon them and infringe upon their rights and they don’t think they have a voice. So this definitely needs to change.
Dr. Nadia Wallace, Psychiatrist
Apart from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, Wallace also identified the effects of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war on standards of living as part of the problem. She equally noted that given the present hurricane season that the country is in, people who survived Hurricane Maria and Storm Erica suffer anxiety that worsens their mental health.
Shellyna Jno Jules, a medical officer at the Acute Psychiatric Unit (APU), identified the symptoms of anxiety and depression as restlessness, irritability, excess worrying, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, sweaty palms, sadness, feelings of hopelessness and or emptiness, societal withdrawal, disrupted sleep pattern, and loss of energy and motivation.
Jules said the APU has 10 beds for female mental patients, 16 beds for males, and six beds for homeless people who are chronic cases.
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