Canadians from Suddie to New Amsterdam

The Canadian Mental Health Team Returns 

Yes, and more of them!  This year there are 17 professionals who have joined Peter, Sujay and Ram [Brenna stayed home as she is in late pregnancy] who were here last year on an exploratory trip. If you wish to look back, see  Peter Puts Pen to Keyboard, November 1, 2013.

Actually, we got an early warning that they were coming when one of the team members called their hotel here on Saturday night to confirm her reservation, only to discover that only about half of the team was booked.   Many of the hotels have web sites here and have on line reservation forms; however, whether they are ever looked at is a different question.  A little experience of  "Welcome to Guyana" .....   They had visions of arriving  at 2:00 AM from the airport with no room to sleep in -- wandering the streets of Georgetown.  And my "ever-helpful roommate" Sylvia was walking around our flat deciding how many mattresses we could accommodate here!   She finally figured that she could get them all in here, but Dennis and I had to sleep on the boxes in Materials Management next door.    

Well, Peter was able to book another hotel before Leiota from the Ministry of Health got even more rooms. They were met at the airport and brought safely to their rooms ..... at the two hotels.   And that was not the only expectation that was not met ..... The lectures were postponed.  The meeting with the Minister of Health was cancelled in order for him to address the Ebola situation here, and make the usual political speech about how well prepared Guyana is.   The Minister of Culture had been called out of the country, so the press conference was much smaller than expected and all the cameras were involved with the Ebola announcement..  

I had made a solemn vow before any god I could remember that I was going to stay at a distance and just observe from the sidelines as I already thought I couldn't finish what I already had on my plate; and besides, Peter, Sujay and Ram were veterans!  It didn't last, and my neurotic-messianic disorder came to the front when I realized that they would be doing nothing for most of their first afternoon in Guyana.  So I volunteered to do a small tour of Georgetown -- St George's Cathedral, the tourist trap crafts lane, National Museum and the Seawall.  Well, by the time they had decided to go and we had a bus ..... The Cathedral and Museum were closed, and I don't think anyone bought anything at the craft shops.  So we walked over to the Market area near Stabroek and wandered through the crowded and dark stalls.  (I think they became aware that they were really a minority.)   Then, we took off for the ocean and the "beach" at the Seawall near the Bandstand.  And, thank God, the ocean was still open! 

The women excited to see  Guyana's Beautiful Beach...

The Team had planned an opening meal and Dennis, Sylvia and I got invited to join them.  It was a great meal and good fellowship and a way to put some of the start-up problems behind them -- perhaps.

What is more Guyanese than Indian Food?

  






The End of Day One

Tuesday morning saw Team 1 and Team 2 get on their way to New Amsterdam and begin their work at the National Psychiatric Hospital re-introducing an Electroconvulsive Therapy Clinic.  However --  and this is a screw-up even beyond the usual Guyanese screw-ups ..… No machine, no electricity in the room, no AC for the delicate equipment, no security (read: door lock), no anaesthetists, no patients with depression, no knowledge claimed by the CEO nor Dr. Maida, the psychiatrist, of their arrival, no recovery areas, a visiting surgical team scheduled at the same time which seconded all the NA anaesthetists, the hotel gave their rooms away -- ETC.  Yes, it's all true!    

This project had been in the works for months, and the machine and supplies had been shipped and arrived in the country.    I might call Sujay thorough!  He and his team had developed teaching materials, manuals and guidelines for ECT administration, proper use of anaesthetic, nursing care pre- and post-therapy, how to use talk therapy as a co-joint intervention, patient and family education materials .....  His team put in hours and hours of preparation.   The ECT programme is what the government and Dr. Harry had asked the team for last year. 

I am glad that I wasn't in New Amsterdam when they arrived ...  But to my amazement and to the huge credit of my colleagues, no one turned homicidal and they went about planning how to be effective with almost every expectation unmet.  Canada should be proud of the professionals who come to foreign lands and represent the best of the Canadian Spirit -- though I do not think they went as far as making a Canadian apology for the inconvenience they caused!

In the end -- or really just a few days later -- the ECT machine was found and a place was secured for it at the General Hospital in New Amsterdam and Sujay and his team began training health professionals.   The Ministry of Heath worked very hard to correct any earlier problems.   It did add weight to my adage:  you need to be here face-to-face to achieve what you want to get done.  It is just how it is  -- and why the country finds it difficult to move from a developing country to one which is more developed.

Next:  Peter's team got left behind.  Or no, not exactly.  On Tuesday, the members accompanied Dr. Harry to his outpatient clinic in Linden ..... They ended up being surprised by 40 or so nursing students and staff who were there for a half day workshop on Mental Illness and Suicide Prevention...  And before any of them could find a  suitable weapon, Dr. Harry had left.    And again the amazing resilience of these Canadian professionals, including Sylvia, meant that they took a few minutes, regrouped and presented a well-received workshop.   When Dr. Harry reappeared, he tried to "kiss and make up" with a large lunch!  

On their way back to Georgetown by bus, the team saw a pickup truck roll over -- and just like in the movies, Dr. Upe, who had all his medical supplies with him, and Nurse Naderia, jumped out of their bus and started to attend to the two people in the truck.  This had to be the world's record for the quickest accident response time in Guyanese [and maybe Canadian] history!  

Back at the School of Nursing, Dennis led both of Tuesday's classes by explaining the students' Myers-Briggs  Personality Profiles.  He gave the tests to them last week and had spent most of his time since then in scoring.   It was a great exercise in self-reflection and maybe the first time that they had looked at who they were in such depth.     


The girls were so advanced that
he upgraded his class from Relationships101 to 102




 



A Special Wuzzle for Dennis.
I had to save it for someone
to whom it applied.

He also had the class get in touch with their "Poet Within" in homage to
Robin Williams' Really Dead Poets Society.   

 Mercifully, The End of Only Day Two.

Day Three would see me return to my vow of just watching... However, I had only printed off Revision 37 of their suggested schedule and failed to notice Revision 49:  Team 3 presents to Mercy Nursing Students at 9:30 .....  Okay, I am Canadian:  if they can cope, so can I.  We cancelled Problem Based Learning for that day, had another teacher give me her class time, and arranged for the second year students to be there, for which another teacher gave up her time... And Upe, Naderia and Paige did an excellent job of presenting "De-stigmatizing Mental Illness".  The students had lots of great questions as just about everyone in Guyana has been touched by mental illness or a suicide.   At least, we would return to "normal" on Thursday .....

That evening the Ministry had rescheduled the CME talks for 6 pm at the auditorium of the National Public Library.   Would I go or not?  I was really tired ..... and the event was not publicized anywhere that I know of .... so Sylvia and I (Dennis was still at the Bosco Boys' Home) went, fearing that no one else would be in the audience ..... Upe talked about the "Elderly and Mental Illness" while Peter presented on "Psychotropic Drugs During Pregnancy".   Actually there were more than 30 doctors in attendance and all appreciated the presentations ..... and Sylvia and I managed to stay awake.

Mercifully, The End of Day Three

It's never "normal" in Guyana ..... The Wednesday's Team had such a great time at the Nursing School that the other half of Peter's Team was now coming on Thursday... And this was on no schedule .....  To shorten these tales:  Martina Power, Sinidu Shimells and Tammy Benwell met the same students and presented an overview of Mental Illness, highlighting Depression and also some Identification and Intervention with Suicidal Persons.    I hate to say this but the students may have enjoyed it more than PBL .....  The presentations were great and the students benefitted . 

There were two more lectures at the Library again on Thursday at 6:00... However, I was just finishing my St Ann's Girls "Bodies, Boys, Belief and Boundaries" course, scheduled to end at 5:30 but the girls kept me overtime till 5:45.  Martina had donated some t-shirts and since there were twenty of them I used them with the girls in my class.  [Some are in the pic.]  Thanks, Martina.  

I then faked an injury and went to my Everest Cricket Club, where there is no cricket ..... and took Dennis down the path of fun and self-destruction.   And then our "Dynamic Catholic" Course leader joined us incognito.   Even better than two more lectures!

Gratefully, The End of Day Four

Friday saw the local team head out to Suddie for an outpatient psychiatry clinic.   The best part is the speedboat ride across the Essequibo... especially in the afternoon when the winds are almost always stronger and the passengers always wet.   From what I hear it was a great clinic with lots of patients seen ...and no bad surprises. 


Today is a Day Off  
The Teams trade places and the NA team comes here and the GT team goes there till Monday.   One of the team members, Ram Kalap, is Guyanese and has a large family outside New Amsterdam who are hosting the whole team to a traditional family feast.   The unholy trinity here is not going as we are headed out on Monday to the National Psychiatric Hospital with the nursing students ..... and two+  hours one-way in a minibus is about all the fun I can manage.

The Team will be here till the early hour of 2 am Wednesday Morning when their adventure will be over ..... Dennis has another week, till Saturday.  And Sylvia is deserting me to go one a retreat to Barbados - white sand and blue water ..... for a week, while I am still here getting my points in the Kin-dom for dedication.   Just three more weeks till I and Sylvia finish for 2014.

This Week's Star at Mercy

?????????????

This is not because there are no more stars.  I just didn't get around to interviewing anyone...  Next week, maybe I'll have to have two?

Father John's 2nd Annual Photo Contest

This Week's Slide Show contains some of the thousands of pictures that the St Ann' Girls have taken for Father John's 2nd Annual Photo Contest.   I will put up only those that made the first cut for the category "Happy Face".  If you have a favourite, tell me and I'll make sure not to cut it when I reduce to just ten finalists.

Thanks for reading this far.
John [Rev]
The Team has a page on FB at: Transforming Guyana’s Mental Health System: A Canadian Initiative