Wait for me

I attended a very good workshop yesterday that was organised by Dr Cilla McDaniel, Glen Mohammed and Wendy Henry from the Health and Social Welfare Directorate.  It was in response to the tragedy of people taking their own lives on the island and how we can respond to this.

There was a real cross section of the community present; government staff, church leaders,people who had been directly affected by suicide, legal, police and others

Glen put it in context but of course always difficult to extrapolate data from such a small community but it highlighted the complexity of the issue and the challenge we face.

We do not have sufficient mental health resources and staff and that is something I am going to need to take on board with the Public Health Committee.  Money again.

Not just money though, there is a limit to how much a community of 4000 can do for itself.  Support groups are a fantastic idea but with the lack of anonymity and the small numbers they are generally not sustainable.  Think of any support group of 10 people, they are probably drawn from a population in the tens of thousands.

There are individuals on island quietly doing work with other individuals to support them and we decided that this was a model that could be expanded.  A list was compiled of people who were willing and able to be supportive and this will be publicized so that hopefully someone in distress will know where to turn.

I keep banging on about this, and will continue to do so, that with the focus on economic development we need to recognize that without a healthy community there is no real sustainable development.  We need to keep pressing this so that those who push economic development do not see improving the mental well being of the island as a secondary issue or one that can be addressed once the economy starts to grow and we have a bit more money.  Strengthening community is an investment in our future and one that is every bit as important as the more traditional view of investment as a financial transaction.

I was privileged to be able to give a short talk and for what it is worth I include it here

As some of you will know I first trained to be a psychiatric nurse.  This was a three year course based in a hospital and there was a lot of group work and counselling involved. Toward the end of our third year one of the students in my class, Sandra, began to struggle. I knew that she was suffering from depression and I once took her to an appointment to see her psychiatrist.  Towards the end of the course Sandra took some time out and I remember spending the day with her shortly before I sat my final exam.

As we came out of our exam one of our tutors gathered us all together to tell us that Sandra had killed herself. 

I wanted to share this with you because though we all felt guilty, and that she would have done more, it is hard to know what else we could have done.  Sandra had professional help, many of her friends were training as psychiatric nurses who were equipped to talk to her and she had acknowledged that she was depressed.  Still she took her own life.

There are many reasons that people take their own lives and as Sandra showed sometimes even when help is available it is not enough.

I say this only to highlight the complexity of the issue and to remind ourselves that though today is a start it is really only the first tentative step on what is going to be a long and difficult journey.

It is a journey that we are going to need to take together and it starts by acknowledging that there is a problem.

I asked if I could speak today, not just because I have some experience in this field, but also because we need to face this as a community.  We are all community leaders and the number of people who have taken their lives in the last year in particular but also the last couple of years is a sign that all is not well within our community.

Let’s get it out in the open now.  Our community is suffering:

·         Alcohol dependency

·         Child sexual abuse

·         Sex offences

·         Domestic violence

·         Depression

·         Self-harm and suicide

·         Loneliness and isolation

·         Chronic health problems

·         Poverty

There are more but the purpose of today is to bring these concerns out into the open and look to ways to address them

Some of these need to be addressed by SHG, some will cost money.  But no matter if SHG is involved or there is the need to identify more money what is required first is leadership within the community.

I said before that we are all community leaders and we are.  There are many more leaders out there and it is up to us to harness the power that resides within this community for the future of this community

So what is community?

Is it just a group of people who live in the same place?

Is it just a group of people who share the same beliefs and values?

Is it just a group of people who face the same problems in life?

My answer is that that it is all of these and more.

My concern is that if we keep trying to define community we will create communities that we do not want to know or be associated with.

Let’s keep it simple

It is all of us, rich, poor, sick, well, employed, unemployed, Saint, expat, Longwood, Sandy Bay, town, it is all of us.

That brings me to the notion of the Common Good. 

The common good is about how to live well together. It is the whole network of social

conditions which enable human individuals and groups to flourish and live a full, genuinely

human life. At the heart of the common good, solidarity acknowledges that all are responsible for all, not only as individuals but collectively at every level.

In our small community there are many examples of the common good in action.  People looking out for each other, our civil societies and charities, those who volunteer and a level of friendliness and courtesy that has been lost in many other parts of the world.  So we have a strong foundation but it is one that we must build on.

Our community is changing and changing fast.  The airport, economic development, Saints returning home, a growing expatriate population working both within SHG and the private sector.  Many welcome this change and see in it new opportunities.

Some don’t.  Some are not benefiting from the new developments and may even fear them. 

Our challenge is to ensure that development does not mean a widening gap.  Some of this financial but much of it is also ensuring that we do not get so caught up in chasing these opportunities that we forget those who are unable to take full advantage of these opportunities.

The principle of the common good requires that the essential dignity of every person is upheld.  In a small community where we know, or think we know everyone’s business, it can be as simple as not prejudging someone because we think we know everything there is to know about them.  It is about giving people a second or even third chance.  Many times I have seen this happen on St Helena but sometimes as well  I have seen people written off as lazy, stupid or not deserving support.

We have much to do.  It starts by acknowledging the problems we face, we tackle these problems by adopting the principles of the common good and we succeed because we are a strong community of people whose fulfilment lies in our relationships with each other.

It may not be easy but it is not impossible.  We have come together today because we are distressed by the number of our people who have taken their own lives 

But we cannot imagine that we will fail

And we will not fail

And that is because; to quote Bruce Springsteen

I will wait for you

And should I fall behind, wait for me