More than 100 Problem Management Plus (PM+) providers, who have been trained to deliver support to persons coping with adversity in Jamaica, received certificates at a graduation ceremony held at the Summit in New Kingston on Thursday.
Areas of training include basic helping skills, stress management techniques, and signs and symptoms of common mental health disorders.
A mental wellness intervention of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, with support from the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), PM+ is aimed at meeting people where they are in communities to help them resolve problems and preserve wellness.
It engages faith-based and community leaders to assist people to cope with mild depression, anxiety and stress resulting from death of family or friends, financial loss, experience with violence, natural disasters, among other adversities. It is particularly useful in communities that do not have mental health specialists.
Senator Dr. Saphire Longmore, a consultant psychiatrist from the University Hospital of the West Indies, who addressed the graduates, commended them for taking “up this very significant mantle and commitment.”
She noted, according to Jamaica Information Services, that the program is an attempt to normalize mental wellness and reframe the stigma associated with mental health.
“You are taking part in an initiative that we are very hopeful for because I think we can all understand and relate to the circumstances of not just mental health but the overall health of our people,” she said.