Senator: Counsel flood victims

VICTIMS of recent flooding in east and central Trinidad may well need psychological counselling, said newly-named Independent Senator Dr Varma Deyalsingh, in his maiden speech in the Senate on Monday.

“With this current flood, we lacked something called psychological first aid, where we should have had persons at each shelter dealing with that.

“We are going to have a fallout from this flood. We are going to have post-traumatic stress. I could foresee it.”

Deyalsingh, secretary of the TT Association of Psychiatrists, touched on other mental health issues. Saying the World Health Organisation said TT is one of the five countries in the Americas with the highest consumption rate of alcohol, he asked whether TT should follow the example of some areas of the United States and raise the legal age for buying alcohol to 21.

Noting the prevalence of gambling machines in many rum shops and parlours, he viewed this as a social ill.

Deyalsingh voiced the difficulty of treating people for drug addiction, some of whom are initially detoxified at St Ann’s Hospital, but then relapse because they do not seek follow-up treatment at places like Caura Hospital.

“We call it a revolving door syndrome, because we know we’re going to see the same chap three months down the line,” he lamented.

Deyalsingh said some 60 per cent of people with depression never seek help. Noting half of all cases of mental illness are manifest by age 14, he lamented that suicide is the second cause of death among youngsters 15 to 19.

He said every year he gets complaints of pupils due to write the SEA exam vomiting, while CXC students are stressed by extra lessons.

“If the educational system is further abusing our children, we’ll have to look at it.”

Saying more must be done to diagnose students for things like attention deficit disorder and dyslexia, he said, “I am calling for the reintroduction of the special education teachers.”

He urged more funds for the Ministry of Education’s Student Support Services, especially to help depressed pupils, many of whom suffer sexual abuse and/or poverty.

“That child might be crying out for help.”