Dr Varma Deyalsingh, secretary of the Association of Psychiatrists of T&T (APTT), is appealing for companies that terminate its workers due to the recession to be held responsible for their mental health for one year as part of the companies’ Employee’s Assistance Programmes (EAP).
He made this suggestion following the decision by several companies—Construtora OAS, Arcelor Mittal and Centrin to lay off staff, and after Yvonne Arjoon survived a suicide pact with her common-law husband Ralph Boochoon last Sunday, after they were unable to repay thousands of dollars they owed to their suppliers. Boochoon died at the San Fernando General Hospital. This, Deyalsingh said, was conveyed to Minister of Labour Jennifer Baptiste-Primus for her urgent consideration.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian on Thursday, Deyalsingh said “Throwing a person on the breadline who has been with a company for years, sometimes without consultation, can create a psychological backlash in that person’s mind.
He said the company’s EAP must now be able to assist individuals mentally and emotionally to fit into society and if needed, to direct them to mental health clinics.
Deyalsingh said free psychiatric help was available at wellness clinics and 31 other clinics throughout the country that offered counselling.
He said the onus should be on companies because individuals who are fired may not have money to seek help by a psychiatrist if he has no money to eat or buy medications.
Deyalsingh said that company would be abandoning its former employees to just rot in their own mental illness.
He said some self-employed people such as gardeners who can’t provide for their families in a downturn in the economy may want to kill themselves.
Deyalsingh said long ago, there was the support system of the family, the church and other places of worship where someone could turn to with their problems.
He said alcohol was a depressant and was a lethal combination for someone who had just lost their job and contemplating suicide, and the probability of someone’s relative who committed suicide taking their own life also increases.
Deyalsingh said another fallout was if people cannot get social amenities, some people may turn to crime.
He said people with any sort of stress can internalise or externalise their emotions.
Deyalsingh said if they externalised their feelings, the country is still lucky that it is not like the US in terms of people “going postal” after being fired and returning to their former workplace and shooting their former co-workers, school or mall.