CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC) – The St Lucia Government says it will participate in a one-year campaign aimed at building awareness and encouraging people to seek help with regards to depression.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness said it would be joining the World Health Organization (WHO) in the one-year global campaign which is part of the observance of World Health Day 2017, held under the theme “Depression: Let’s Talk”.

“We aim to reduce depression and to encourage persons suffering from depression to seek help and to get help. This theme is extremely timely for us in St Lucia. As we know, depression affects not only elderly persons but those in all age groups,” said senior medical officer in the Ministry of Health, Dr Sharon Belmar-George.

She said the objective of the campaign is to strengthen capacity and build awareness.

“When we look at every case of suicide that we’ve had, there was somebody who saw something was different [about the victim], so we need to get back to the stage where we look after our neighbour, we look out for each other, and we look out for our colleagues. And it’s not just the Ministry of Health, but every individual in every single community. We need to support each other as we reduce the impact of depression.”

Health and Wellness Minister Mary Isaac said the stigma of depression prevents individuals from seeking and accessing treatment and care.

“When families have people suffering from depression or mental illness they tend to hide the fact that the person has a disorder. But think of the negative impact of what it could manifest into later if you do not attend to it when you should.”