Grenada: Mental Health Workers scold government over lack of investment

Grenada: Community Mental Health Workers of Grenada lashed out on present and former administration on being ignored in the fulfillments of their demand.

The workers outlined their issues while facing with the transport allowances, scarcity of tools, understaffing and many others.

While putting serious allegations on administration, the group of the workers said that neither the current and nor the former government has played their part in helping them in their campaigns.

It outlined they are entitled to bring awareness about the mental health in the communities of Grenada. The organization work for the social cause which is needed to be addressed efficiently, however, these issues have been hampering their social responsibility.

While criticizing the government, the group of people asserted that they were not paid transport allowances despite being covered 700 miles per month in the several communities of Grenada.

Besides this, the group outlined that the government never taken care of the issue of the understaffing. Due to the understaffing, the group of the mental health awareness have been facing overburden in their work.

It has led them to work day and night to cover their target areas for the awareness campaigns. Besides this, the lack of tools has also never been the part of the discussion at the administrational level.

The group added that due to the scarcity of the tools, the work is being hampered leading the difficulty for them to fulfill their job requirements.

Community Mental Health Group also emphasized that the government has also made numerous unpaid claims which will never be fulfilled.

The Grenada Public Workers Union has written numerous correspondence to the Ministry of Health authorities to address the issues but have only been met with lip service.

The Grenada Public Workers Union has appealed to the Ministry of Health authorities to deal with the issues of health workers but ended up with no certain response. The group emphasized that the lip service and sloganeering cannot improve mental health in Grenada.

It added that these things will work only for the encouragement for just short span of time.  The Mental Health group has demanded genuine investment from the authorities.

It added that only investment will be able to enhance their work and campaigns could come out with productive results. Further, the group asked for the immediate assistance several times, but all go in vain due to zero response from the government.

The workers now have decided to take a stance via industrial action against years of being ignored by the former and current administration on the many issues they face.

Mental Health and Wellness year

Ironically, the authorities have dubbed the year 2023 as THE YEAR OF MENTAL HEALTH & WELLNESS. The prime motto of this development program is to promote mental peace and eradicate every illness related to mental health in the citizens of Grenada.

This mental health program includes mental health pharmacists, community support workers, counsellors and psychologist. They help people by providing mental healing counselling seasons, education classes and necessary medications if they required.

All the workers associated in this reformer step authorized to cover 700 miles per month in their delegated areas, however, despite of doing tremendous efforts, they do not get relevant claims.