They may not spend too much time thinking about it, but ordinary people know that violence begets violence.

So, when childcare experts say abused children very often become child abusers and are prone to violence as adults, most people are not surprised.

For sure, this newspaper can only agree with Mrs Claudette Richardson Pious, executive director at Children First — a not-for-profit organisation which caters for vulnerable children, when she suggests that much of the violence in Jamaica flows from troubled/abusive childhood experiences.

“When they [abused children] get into their adulthood, they actually play out and do some of the things that took place in their childhood. Also, you find out that a lot of the violence you see happening has to do with some of these unresolved issues,” she is reported as saying.

In fact, we believe that instability in home and community leads to unstable behaviour long before adulthood.

Hence the disturbing stories in Monday’s edition (Mental Health Day) about violent rival gangs at a high school in Kingston and reports yesterday of rampant drug use at schools in St Elizabeth.

The anecdotal evidence suggests such problems are not restricted to any school or geographical area. They are widespread and not new.

To sum it up, we are convinced that, for many of our children and adults, violent and antisocial behaviour are intimately and intricately linked to mental health problems — often triggered by lived experience.

Compounding the issue is that mental health is not often definitively dealt with in Jamaica. To begin with, fear of being stigmatised will often prevent people from getting professional help.

Beyond that, professional mental health therapy — outside of the overworked, stressed-out public sector — is extremely expensive. Dean of discipline at The Cedar Grove Academy Mr Antonio Baker tells us that professional counselling for a child could cost $7,500 for an hour-long session.

All of the above is why we believe a recently announced programme to provide mental health training for school professionals so they can better assist their students is extremely important.

More than 500 teachers, school nurses and guidance counsellors in 177 secondary schools are to get dedicated training over a three-month period, which will equip them to provide “mental health first aid”.

According to the State-run Jamaica Information Service, the $10-million initiative, spearheaded by the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the Ministry of Education and Youth, will focus primarily on grade-nine students. We are told that the programme will “create a curriculum on how to appropriately respond to students’ mental health challenges and conditions, thus raising awareness in schools to improve students’ attitude, confidence and knowledge as well as to reduce the stigma…”

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton is reported as saying: “School is fertile soil for developing good habits as well as for bad habits… So, it is natural that we have to start there.”

We agree.

However, we believe it can’t stop there. We recognise the resource constraints. Yet, over time, ways must be found to comprehensively extend such a programme — appropriately adjusted — to communities and people of all ages, through the length and breadth of Jamaica.

That’s when people will have reason to believe that mental health is everybody’s problem.