Our hearts sank last week on hearing of the killing of three-year-old Asher Campbell in St Mary.

As reported by the Port Maria police, little Asher was walking with members of his family in Pagee district when they were attacked by a man wielding an iron pipe and a knife.

The family’s attempt to stop the attack failed and Asher’s mother, as well as five others were chopped and hit on different parts of their bodies.

The man who is accused of carrying out the attack, Mr Devon Williams, was arrested by the police. He is reported to be mentally ill.

We are yet to determine the truth of that claim. However, the pain this incident has caused is incalculable, not only to both families involved, but to the entire country, especially as this happened during Mental Health Awareness Month.

Over the years the State has placed a lot of attention on mental health treatment.

We recall that, in his recent contribution to the 2024/25 sectoral debate, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton stated that more than 320 individuals have benefited from Problem Management Plus, a programme developed and tested by the World Health Organization as a scalable psychological intervention for adults experiencing stress and anxiety.

The programme, we are told, “is particularly useful in communities that do not have many specialists”.

According to Dr Tufton, 271 people have received training as providers and 56 from six parishes have received support from those providers.

He said that this year his ministry will be offering training to another 40 community leaders in order to help people in their communities solve problems and build coping skills to manage stress.

Additionally, he said, more than 3,000 students have been reached through the ministry’s Wellness Check-Ins that feature small group sessions between vulnerable youngsters and mental health professionals.

Dr Tufton also said that an additional four mental health nurse practitioners and 80 psychiatric nursing aides are being deployed into the community mental health services to enable greater responsiveness to people with mental health challenges.

That is all good, and we acknowledge the correctness of his position that, “This journey must continue as mental health is a major issue in our society.” That is mainly so because of the stigma attached to mental illness which prompts many Jamaicans to shy away from psychiatric care because of the fear of being labelled and ridiculed as “mad”. And, sadly, many categorised as “mad” get ostracised, or, even worse, attacked in the streets.

In relation to treatment our health professionals and volunteers are doing the best they can. It seems to us, though, that there is need to develop a policy that addresses those believed to be prone to violence as distinct from patients who display no signs of aggression.

Add to that continued public education, planned for the long term, to help the population understand the importance of mental health, the scope of the problem and what needs to be done.

Crucially, though, there must be an increased effort to develop an understanding that it is an illness like any other which needs treatment and should not be cause for shame and disgrace.