Government will be rolling out an education campaign to teach people, including teachers, how to detect early warning signs of mental health issues.

This has been disclosedby the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health Dr. Sonia Browne in the wake of five suicides in Barbados for the year so far and 3 over the last two weeks.

Dr. Browne was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a forum put on by the Healthy Caribbean Coalition.

She notes that the suspended community nursing program will be resumed.

Meantime, mental health expert, Dr. Brian McLachlan, believes the recent spate of apparent suicides highlights the need to pay more attention to the issue.

Dr. McLachlan, senior consultant psychiatrist at the Psychiatric Hospital, urges the public to pay attention to their own mental health and to the signs they are seeing in others.

Dr. Brian McLachlan, senior consultant psychiatrist at the Psychiatric Hospital

The issue of mental health was a key topic for some of the callers on VOB’s Down to Brasstacks call-in program.

A contributor spoke of her own struggles with mental health.

She sees the need for more intervention and mechanisms to provide help.

She also spoke of the dangers of social media.

A caller on VOB’s Down to Brasstacks call-in program