Update on Suicide Treatment

Chester Williams

And while we had the Commissioner of Police with us today, we asked him for an update on the counselling that about twenty police officers were undergoing who the department identified as having suicidal tendencies. And while he spoke to that problem, the Department of Women’s and Family Affairs also deals with counselling for people who have those tendencies, as its counselling coordinator, Onando Saint Bernard told us.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“I must comment on our psychiatrist, Mr. Mr. Leslie. He’s doing an exceedingly good job in moving around the country, speaking to our officers, identifying those officers with various issues whether it is psychological issue, it’s financial issues, it’s domestic issues, it’s alcoholism. He’s identifying them for us and with that we are able now to see how we can navigate the process of counselling. We would normally request the officers to do voluntary counselling, but when we see that they refuse to undergo voluntary counselling, then we invoke the provisions of the police act and would make it mandatory.”

Onando St. Bernard

Onando St. Bernard, Counselling Coordinator, Women’s Dept.

“You have certain individuals who are predisposed or have a higher risk of moving towards suicide. You have individuals with mental illnesses, specifically bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, people who are depressed, people who have substance abuse. These are individuals who would be at higher risk. You also have different, populations within the society as well. You have those who are oppressed or marginalized such as the LGBT community.”

Marion Ali

You have vulnerable groups, specifically, yes, and so your interventions then would necessitate what? And I’m sure that it differs from person to person.

Onando St. Bernard

“Exactly, that’s very important, yes. Suicide treatment is not one size fits all. It’s definitely to understand. What is going on with them to provide the best care possible. And so the therapy that we would use is definitely cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and to support these forms of therapy, it would also be to introduce individuals to yoga, meditation, mindfulness, physical exercise. The same way that you physically exercise to build muscle and so on and so forth is the same way that the brain also needs to go on be subjected to some sort of exercise as well in the form of mindfulness and meditation and things like that and cognitive behavioral therapy, especially the whole idea around cognitive behavioral therapy is to get at the root of the issue.”