Special-needs students join Child Month mental health forum at Devon House

Children with special needs from several Corporate Area institutions spent Thursday at Devon House in St Andrew, where the Ministry of Education staged a Child Month activity designed to help them speak openly in a welcoming setting.

Students from the Salvation Army School for the Blind, Danny Williams School for the Deaf, Carberry Court School of Special Education, Randolph Lopez School of Hope, and Hope Valley Experimental School took part in the ministry’s Child Conversations programme on the Devon House lawns.

The session was held under the theme “Prioritising our children’s mental health, stronger minds, safer future” and also allowed the children to mix with students who do not have special needs.

Hyacinth Blair, senior director for Children’s Affairs and Policy in the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, said the aim was to make mental health discussions normal for children. “We want our children to understand that it’s okay to be sad about things. It’s okay to talk about things. Mental wellness doesn’t mean that you are mad, so to speak. We want them to understand that as much as it is important to be physically well and emotionally well, mentally well is also a part of it. We want them to understand that it is okay to find ways to ensure that they are mentally well,” Blair told the Jamaica Observer.

Blair said children can sometimes respond harshly to those living with disabilities, and the ministry wanted both groups to spend time together so they could better understand one another.

“We have paired them with able-bodied peers, and we want conversations so that there is a greater level of understanding between children who do not have challenges and our special needs children so we can have more collaboration, more understanding,” said Blair.

She added that exposure could help children challenge teasing or unkind behaviour when they see it among classmates. “Children can be really cruel. You may see a child with special needs and another child will want to tease them. So we want them to understand each other more, to talk more. And so with a greater level of understanding, you as a child who does not share the same challenge, you may be in a crowd with other students, and because you were exposed to that child or that special need, you can be able to say to your peers, ‘Don’t do that’ or ‘Don’t say that,’ ” added Blair.

Blair also noted that research indicates children with special needs face a higher risk of abuse, while mental health has too often been treated as a subject people avoid.

“It’s probably greater among them because sometimes we don’t remember them as we ought to. And sometimes they can’t articulate their challenges or their problems as well as the other child because of the issue that they may have. There was a time when we would not talk about mental health. It’s something that we keep in the closet, but we understand now that in order to develop strong minds and to have a safer future for our country, then our children need to be mentally well,” Blair told the Observer.

“One of the ways really is to be able to express yourself, to talk about the things that are bothering you, and to find solutions. To feel safe in expressing themselves. We want it to become a normal part of life,” Blair added.

She said while channels exist for children who may be in danger, some children cannot use them because of communication barriers. “We have like a 211 hotline that you can report child abuse. But if a child can’t speak, really, they can’t use it. And so there has to be other means by which they can communicate. And that is what we have to look into to at least increase and to make it easier for them to. If a child doesn’t speak well, doesn’t hear well, then it’s hard for them to articulate how it is they’re feeling,” noted Blair.

Sashoir Murphy Hewitt, a teacher at the Danny Williams School for the Deaf, welcomed the ministry’s effort. “I think the initiative will be very beneficial, especially to the deaf students, because Jamaican Sign Language is not a language that is publicly known, and that is their first language, so many time they don’t have persons to communicate with or who understand them or who they feel comfortable to share whatever they are going through,” said Murphy Hewitt.