Mental Health Awareness Week was launched yesterday by health minister Jeanne Atherden at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute.

In her statement, the minister lamented the stigma surrounding mental health issues and highlighted the need to increase the number of people trained in mental health first aid, a programme that teaches members of the public how to help a person with a mental health problem (including substance abuse).

“The number of service users seen in the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute Acute Care Clinic — which is the main referral site to MWI — rose 137 per cent between 2010 and 2015,” said Ms Atherden, adding that “at least one in four adults will experience mental health difficulties in their lifetime”.

The minister also stressed the importance of combating the stigma surrounding mental health.

“This stigma means many people receive little or no help in mental health emergencies. If we are to treat mental health and physical health equally we need to increase the number of people in the community trained in mental health first aid.”

Ms Atherden also highlighted the harmful nature of some mental health issues, adding: “Just like medical emergencies, sometimes it is a matter of life and death. Every 40 seconds somebody somewhere in the world dies by suicide.”

The theme of this year’s mental health week is “dignity in mental health: mental health first aid for all”.

Most of the activities throughout the week will be dedicated to familiarising attendees with how to recognise and deal with the signs and symptoms of mental health difficulties. There will be training sessions and seminars on private, corporate and self-care.

The minister finished by encouraging employers and educational institutions to make mental health first aid more internally accessible and pledged that she too would complete the training course in the hope that it would encourage other members of the community to do the same.

BHB chief executive officer Venetta Symonds noted that “the measure of our society is how we treat our most vulnerable members”, although she added that it was “not an inherent measure of a society”.

Mrs Symonds also praised the MWI for its dedication to the “honour and respect” of which all people are worthy. She underlined that MWI teams work “around the clock” as “mental health crises and needs do not keep to a weekday schedule”.

Mental health first aid was developed in 2001 in Australia by psychiatric nurse Betty Kitchener and her husband Anthony Jorm, a psychology professor at Melbourne University. Since then, it has spread to more than 17 countries including Bermuda, Britain and the United States.