Young people are leading the campaign for greater awareness and better insurance coverage for those in the Cayman Islands battling mental health issues.
The Youth Ambassadors group, comprising teenagers and young adults from across the islands, was one of the leading advocacy groups for the decriminalisation of suicide.
But its members insist their mission does not stop there.
“We were very happy that we were able to help get suicide decriminalised but there is so much more we are looking to accomplish,” said Cristin Jackson, one of the group’s leaders.
Support and therapy for mental illness is still not covered by insurers to the same extent as physical illness. And though suicide is no longer legally considered a crime, that does not mean health insurance providers are required to cover the medical care of someone injured attempting to take their own life.
“There is a lot of work to do, not only when it comes to covering medical costs from attempted suicide but making sure people have access to therapy and other types of support if they need it,” said Jackson.
Young people taking the lead
Like climate change, mental health is an issue where young people have taken the lead in pushing for a new approach.
In part, that is because it is an issue that impacts them and their peers more directly, says Sydni Ebanks.
“We are feeling the effects of it a lot more and we are the ones feeling the effects of it going forward. The world is changing so fast and we want to take what steps we can to make things better for our generation and the generation that comes after us.”
It is also possible, says Sadie Finch, that young people are more comfortable about discussing mental health concerns than older people.
“With my peers, when someone says, ‘How are you?’, I don’t feel that pressure to just say, ‘Yeah, I am good’ – there is more open conversation among younger people. The stigma hasn’t been cemented in our generation in the same way.”
Many older adults may be going through the same kind of concerns – especially with the magnifying impact of COVID-19 and its economic aftermath.
Jackson says young people are more comfortable being at the forefront of the discussion on mental health. That awareness brings a responsibility to help deal with it.
She is pleased that government appears to be receptive to their campaigns.
Alongside more complete health insurance coverage and better therapies and facilities, the group is advocating for more work to be done in schools.
“To get to the root of the problem, we need education,” said Jhadari Lumley.
“John Gray has started teaching mental health in Year 9 and it would be great if every school did the same thing for all age groups.”
According to a National Drug Council Survey, 62% of young people in Cayman had been taught something about mental health in schools.
While that’s encouraging, says Jackson, the flip side is that more than one-third did not get any kind of education on the topic.
The students hope that decriminalisation of suicide will be a first step towards a more open national conversation.
“Mental health is not treated as important as physical health because people can’t always see it,” said Lumley. “It is so subtle sometimes. If you cut yourself, you are always going to bleed. But that is not the case for anxiety and depression. Not everyone works the same.”
Dylan Dacosta said there is a lot of work to be done to build capacity to treat mental health concerns before they become too severe.
He said the long-term mental health facility planned for East End is a step in the right direction, but adds Cayman also needs better facilities for less extreme cases.
“The only real resource available is the hospital,” he said.
Greater access to outpatient care for those suffering with anxiety, depression or other mental health concerns is also a key concern.
“A lot of people need treatment and can’t afford to access it or don’t know what is available to them,” said Ebanks.
Increasing the coverage on standard health insurance contracts will begin to solve some of those issues, said Finch.
“The next significant goal has to be to get life and health insurance to cover mental health more extensively, not just treatment for injuries after a suicide attempt, but preventative mental health care.”
The National Drug Council and the Alex Panton Foundation surveyed 1,775 students about mental health in 2018. This is what they found:
10% indicated they have been diagnosed with a mental illness
5.9% indicated that a parent or parents suffered from mental illness
28% reported they had engaged in ‘self-harming’ behaviours
One in three reported they had considered attempting suicide
13% had actually attempted suicide
5% had to be treated by a medical professional following a suicide attempt
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