Online directory for mental health services launched

NOT OKAY, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has launched a free online directory of “free and affordable professional resources” for mental health.

The directory, the organisation said in a release to media, is a “comprehensive, first-of-its kind compilation of services for those suffering with mental-health problems” and available at the website www.notokaytt.org.

It added that the directory also provides “a guide to services for child abuse and gender-based violence.”

The directory was produced, Not Okay said, in response to the “overwhelming number of requests” from people contacting the organisation saying they suffer from mental illnesses and not knowing where to turn to for help.

Kenycia Doyle, one of the creators of the directory, was quoted as saying, “When we started Not Okay and the videos started to gain traction, the questions we got most frequently from individuals were requests for help, whether for themselves or for someone they knew.”

The organisation itself was launched “less than one year ago.”

It further quoted Doyle as saying once people began acknowledging the importance of changing behaviours, the organisation felt they needed to provide them with next steps.

“A natural next step was an easily accessible and user friendly resource guide, which would provide them with services despite income brackets or location,” Doyle was quoted as saying.

While, Doyle was quoted as saying, the guide is “by no means complete” the organisation hopes to keep adding to it to “provide citizens with the resources they need.

“We hope this resource guide is the first step to building a healthier population.”

The release said the guide can mean a “world of difference to someone suffering from mental illness” who cannot afford help.

It said many people in TT were currently unemployed or barely earning a liveable wage and to those people “mental care is a luxury.”

Conditions , the release said, such as depression, trauma, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and suicidal urges, can worsen while people wait “for the day that they can afford help.”

People, it said, struggled to afford therapy sessions which ranged from $600 to $800 per session and that treatment often varied from one to two sessions a week.

“The user-friendly directory is aimed at making such invaluable resources easily reachable in a digital format, especially to those who cannot afford to pay for full-price treatment,” the release said.

Not Okay, it added, believes “that everyone deserves access to help” and “putting help in one place with a simple, user friendly design, coupled with a modern, clean layout” is an important step forward toward addressing mental health in TT.

The organisation aims to remove stigma surrounding mental health issues through public education on social media.