The Tribune

The Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre’s Occupational Therapy Department will embark on a month-long journey to promote, educate and inspire the nation’s youth to embrace a dynamic and unsaturated profession while developing an appreciation for mental health as a medical specialty.

The major event to achieve this is a speech competition scheduled for April 10 under the theme, “Mental Health For All, Involving All”. The speech competition has two categories:

Students from grades 9-12: Contestants have entered from St Andrews International School, Galilee College, Temple Christian School, New Providence Classical School, Aquinas College and CC Sweeting Senior High School.

There are four people from the community agencies such as Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute and the New Providence Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The theme suggests that mental health is vital to everybody. ‘Mental health’ and ‘mental illness’ are increasingly being used as if they mean the same thing, but they do not; they are distinctly different. Everyone has mental health, just like everyone has health. A mental illness is an illness the affects the way people think, feel, behave or interact with others.

The theme further calls on everyone to learn more about mental health, to equip themselves to provide helpful support to those affected my mental illness in our families and communities.

Those who want to learn how to assist with mental health, can start by attending the speech competition at New Dimension Church of God on Joe Farrington Road.