Telehealth programme to help Barbadians cope during COVID-19 pandemic

Supreme Counselling for Personal Development is currently working on introducing a Telehealth Programme, to assist Barbadians to better cope with various issues, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shawn Clarke, CEO of Supreme Counselling for Personal Development (SCPD) told the Barbados Advocate that whilst the Telehealth Programme is still in the works, the aim is to use electronic information and telecommunication technologies, to remotely provide services to persons needing help with mental health matters or tips on how to enhance their coping skills.

“The Telehealth Programme is to help you to provide a session online, so you can basically provide the counselling services, through the use of technology. This would have been used quiet recently in China during the COVID-19 pandemic and it was also used in Australia to deal with mental health, when they would have had the massive floods and fires quite recently. Australia would have used it in a programme called the Better Access Initiative, where persons got access to counselling services, by using the technology,” Clarke explained.

He meanwhile noted that SCPD’s programme will likely be referred to as the SIP Initiative, a shorter version of the Supreme Intervention Programme. The concept for such an initiative has come about, based on those reaching out to Supreme Counselling at present, both youth and adults, for assistance on how to cope during the current curfew or lockdown period.

“We are submitting a proposal very soon to Government, for assistance in having persons use the services, but not necessarily having to worry about paying the psychologists for doing it. I obviously know that this is a very difficult time for government financially and otherwise, but one of the things that we have to be cognisant of, is the fact that we can’t push aside or undermine the psychological challenges that COVID-19 will have on families, not only during this time that we are trying to get it arrested, but after COVID-19. The many psychological scars that people will have afterwards, whether it is dealing with domestic violence or people being afraid to go back out into public and socialising with friends and the paranoia that may be associated with that,” he pointed out, whilst speaking to the need for such a programme.