Wellness Clinics of benefit to Barbadians in need of intervention

The Substance Abuse Foundation is offering online Wellness Clinics to Barbadians and others who may be in need of an intervention, to assist with their mental well-being.

Alison Gotip, Director of Clinical Services at the Substance Abuse Foundation (SAF) acknowledged the above, as the Foundation hosted an online presentation on the topic, “My Mental Wellness Matters: Managing Emotions During Lockdown”, just recently.

“What we have realised is that we really need to see the diverse supply of treatment services. This is really a response to the amount of persons that were ringing us and expressing concern about their family members, their children, persons going through crisis or persons experiencing domestic violence. So what we have done now is that we have created a Wellness Clinic, which is covering the whole gamut of mental wellness” Gotip explained.

She added, “Things like domestic violence, crisis, trauma counselling, family therapy, workplace interventions (we deal with). There are some people who are noticing that work colleagues are not doing so well in this situation and they want to know how do I help this person. How do I allow them to get help in a way that they don’t feel judged or condemned. So we have a whole wide range of services (to assist)”.

Pointing out that the Substance Abuse Foundation offers residential services, Gotip however noted that given the period of national pause, face-to-face sessions are also on pause and hence the need to offer virtual services via various channels, whether it be through Facebook, WhatsApp, Zoom or other platforms and also via the traditional use of the telephone.

Gotip meanwhile stated, “We understand that people feel isolated, but we are all in this together, from the heights and terraces, to everybody else. We are all in this together and what we really need to do as an island, is to really come together and pool together our resources”.

As such, she noted that professionals equipped to assist persons to fight addictions and better balance their mental well-being, stand ready to assist members of the public in coping during the national pause, as the country continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Even those who may find it challenging to balance their finances at this present time for whatever reason, can also reach out for assistance as well. The hotline number is 433-3488. (RSM)