Dear Editor,
After the initial hullabaloo we have hardly heard anything about the Ministry of Education’s Mobile Psychosocial Unit (MPU)? So we ask is this unit only servicing students in school settings or all students wherever they may be? For example the children of murdered victim Zaila Sugrim and the perpetrator, Ryan Sugrim attend various schools but none so far has received counselling through the Mobile Psychosocial Unit.
In fact as far as we are aware children of murdered, suicide and abused victims in Guyana have never been offered counselling through the MPU, even though almost all of them do attend schools in various parts of the country. Since the unit was set up The Caribbean Voice (TCV) has handled many cases for which children who attend schools have needed counselling but none of them have ever been counselled by the MPU. In almost every case TCV has had to provide the counselling or reach out to various social workers and certified counsellors to do so.
So the question remains: whither the Ministry of Education’s Mobile Psychosocial Unit and who are the trained professionals within this unit? Surely it has not become like the Suicide Helpline, which claims to be doing great work but has refused to provide supporting stats?
Yours faithfully,
Annan Boodram
The Caribbean Voice
