Human rights advocate Maria Carla Gullotta is calling for a robust system of detecting mental illness among young people in Jamaica before they get to a stage where their condition is difficult to address.

Gullotta, executive director of Stand Up for Jamaica (SUFJ), issued the call on Wednesday, days after SUFJ, in collaboration with the Public Law Chambers, released a report titled ‘Breaking Barriers: An Inclusive Approach to Mental Illness’.

The report argued that there are a number of pillars which must exist if mental illness in citizens is to be managed properly. The pillars include prevention, early assessment, rehabilitation, and inclusion.

The report stated that prevention of various types of mental illnesses helps to keep the condition from becoming dramatic, and Gullotta argued that early assessment of children helps to detect the specific types of mental illnesses children have.

“There are many types and they have symptoms. Early assessment helps to locate where the disease is based. Rehabilitation is the way of addressing the problem and trying to reduce it and allowing the person to remain in his community and with his family, but there must be a robust system to assist the family. There must be a network around the family,” she said.

“There also has to be inclusion. There is a very strong stigma when people are labelled mentally ill. They stone them, hit them, laugh at them and that is the best way for him or her to feel marginalised,” said Gullotta.

She noted that SUFJ has psychologists who work in the correctional facilities and non-medical staff who carry out work in schools in vulnerable communities who have documented their observations surrounding mental illness.

“According to my experience working in the schools in the most fragile areas, we see that the number of children affected by mental disabilities is very high. A whole lot of them suffer from anxiety. They cannot sit down, they are hyperactive and they cannot focus. After speaking with them you realise that this is coming from trauma, loneliness, no father, no mother and nobody,” Gullotta said.

She highlighted an instance of her watching a group of students at a school in a vulnerable community reciting the two times table. According to Gullotta, approximately two hours later they forget everything.

“I think that it is extremely worrying. To make it worse, the number of students in a class is very high. Which teacher can find the energy and patience and time to stay with those who need a certain level of individual attention? So they are easily left behind.

“What you have is that in high schools there are quite a number of children who cannot read, or they will call a word but don’t have any idea about the meaning of the word. I have some who I personally try to assist and at 15 years old they cannot read. You give them a piece of paper and they say they don’t know what to do. All of this grows in a way that is not balanced, but who is going to care for them?” Gullotta asked.

The SUFJ head argued that the problem can be addressed if parents are more caring and if there are instruments for children to address their specific mental situations.

“There is oftentimes nowhere to go and what is a small mental challenge grows because it has not been assessed or directed and therefore you have people with dyslexia and all kinds of things. Their problem grows into a permanent mental problem,” said Gullotta.

She shared that many children say they are lonely and lack caring parents.

“Most of them do not have a father. The father is passing by once every three months, which means he is not an educator. Then you have a mother who is totally overwhelmed by life because she is poor and has to find money for food, for school, shoes, and this and that.

“She is spending 80 per cent of her day hustling around, so nobody gives the child the needed guidance. Their loneliness is dramatic. They cannot talk and they cannot express their feelings. They cannot even come to you and say they feel strange. Nobody has time for them,” charged Gullotta.