All psyched out

Fri Sep 20, 2013

Editor: Now that I’ve had time to assimilate what’s been really going on in our country, after returning home for the past four months, I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight a major failing in our country. {{more}}

This year ALONE there have been more than five children who have seen their mother murdered right in front of their eyes. Do you know what that does to the PSYCHE of a grown person??? Much less a child??? THERE ARE NO CLINICAL OR CHILD PSYCHOLOGISTS IN THIS COUNTRY QUALIFIED TO SPEAK TO THESE CHILDREN. I know many might say that there are counsellors for these sorts of situations, but let me be clear. Counsellors work primarily through dialogue, while psychologists use scientific methods for diagnosis and treatment. The role of a counsellor is almost entirely of support or rehabilitation.

Psychologists have extensive training and may have specialized in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness, emotional disorders, and behavioural problems. This situation to me, more than anything else in recent times in our country, has brought to light the absurd lack of infrastructure and relevance that psychology has in our society.

Psychology is seen by many as a wishy-washy degree that holds little to no merit to people of St Vincent. But that line of thinking suggests ignorance and breeds it even more. Gone are the days when children told their parents or a relative about their problems. In most cases, even the parents themselves have their own problems or are unable to deal with further issues, so they just ignore them.

In our society there are dire situations that need to be addressed: the post-partum issues; the many people on the streets walking around having conversations with imaginary people; the constant depression that cannot be solved by alcohol; the many instances of incest that society keeps turning a blind eye to…all of these are issues that can be worked out bit by bit if we opened our mind to having licensed and qualified psychologists.

Time to ADVANCE SVG! Our people need more qualified professionals catering to their mental healt,h so that maybe, just maybe, one less child would suffer lifelong effects of seeing their mother brutally murdered in front of their eyes. So, the next time someone asks about the usefulness of getting a psychology degree, ask them how their degree in Management and Banking and Finance will help treat those that have multiple personality disorders, help rape survivors overcome their ordeal, care those affect by incest or assist women with post-partum depression.

Being one of 20 people fighting for that single bank job will not help advance our people. The mental state of our country will be improved if only we can see the difference that psychologists can make to this blessed land.

Aspiring Psychologist