_{Photo: Christa Courtenay, President of the Mental Health Association}

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Oct. 17, 2024

The Mental Health Association of Belize, in partnership with UNICEF Belize and the Department of Youth Services, hosted its first-ever Youth Symposium on Wednesday, October 16, at the Princess Casino Conference Room in Belize City, aimed at teens of various ages in the high school setting.

The symposium was focused on various challenges that adolescents are facing while navigating through their daily lives as they transition into adulthood. One particular issue was suicide prevention, and a panel discussion on this topic was led by students from a number of high schools with certified therapists being on standby.

“We thought one way to change the narrative is to make sure that youth have a place, a safe place, guided to have conversations about their experience surrounding suicide and suicide prevention and mental health as a whole,” said Christa Courtenay, president of the Mental Health Association.

“… We know that the influence of social peer pressure, not knowing how to manage themselves in relationships … to social media … as you can probably figure out, humans are catching up to technology, and so the fact that algorithms are designed to kind of feed them what they’re looking for, not feed them what they need … so, it’s educating the consumer. Teenagers are big consumers of information off the internet; but they’re not as well-trained how to, kind of, be an informed consumer of the things that they’re being fed,” she added.

Courtenay highlighted the symposium’s purpose to change the narrative, which is in line with this year’s theme of World Suicide Prevention Day: “Changing the Narrative on Suicide”.

“We know that suicide is something nobody wants to talk about; but we need to talk about it, and also be sensitive when we are talking about it. So, today we would like to bring students from many schools in Belize and let them talk about suicide. There are so many issues associated with suicide. People have anxiety, depression, family problems, the issue of poverty, gender-based violence, and bullying. People face a lot of challenges that make them try to take their life,” Dr. Olusola Oladagi, Health and Nutrition Specialist for UNICEF Belize, noted.

Over a hundred students, at least 10 from each of 13 different schools in Belize City, were present at the event.

“We have not had in any of our high school events where we get that level of participation. The fact that they’re here, the fact that they found six people from each of those six high schools who are willing, and they thought were capable of being on a panel to discuss a topic like this, shows that there is interest and motivation towards the topic,” Courtenay further commented.

World Suicide Prevention Day is recognized annually on September 10.