Self esteem and coping skills
The Caribbean Voice is a New York-based NGO that has been involved in social activism since its launch in 1998.
In 2000, a landmark study – The Shadow of Death: A recent study of suicides in Guyana, Incidence, Causes and Solutions - reported that the majority of those committing suicide were young males below the age of 35 years. They were likely to be poorly educated, employed in low-income occupations, reside in the same community all their lives and to be less likely to have children.
In Guyana almost all suicides are committed by ingesting poisons, especially agri-based and by hanging and are the results of abusive and dysfunctional relationships; teenage affairs and pregnancy; rape and incest; an inability to deal with problems/challenges and/or unbearable pain – physical or emotional - which generally give rise to awful agony and depression and feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, powerlessness and loneliness. Suicidal mindsets are prone to copycatting, a practice referred to as the Werther Effect and catalyzed by alcoholism; lack of empathetic communication and low levels of self-acceptance and/or feelings of inadequacy.
What all of this points to is transparent, even though minimally addressed especially by government – low self esteem and lack of coping skills. Self-esteem is the internal knowledge that people are capable of handling anything that life throws at them. Self-esteem is a feeling of self-worth and an understanding that we all are capable human beings who are strong and resilient. People with a high level of self esteem are confident in their abilities; handle stress and problems well and are able to hold their heads up high and feel good about them even when they screw up.
According to Yahoo! Answers, “Self-esteem is your opinion of yourself. High self-esteem is a good opinion of oneself, and low self-esteem is a bad opinion of oneself. The way people feel about themselves, has a huge affect on the way they treat themselves, and others, and on the kinds of choices they make. It affects how we think and act and how we react to challenges. It has a direct bearing on one’s happiness and wellbeing.”
Writing on the website PsychCentral, Elizabet Venzin quotes psychiatrist Dr. Kevin Solomons, who wrote the book Born to be Worthless: The Hidden Power of Low Self-Esteem, as saying, “Low self-esteem can get us to make self-destructive decisions such as tolerating mistreatment or harming ourselves (by using drugs, becoming promiscuous, developing eating disorders or indulging in cosmetic surgery), or harming others (bullying, cheating) in an effort either to make others love us or to numb us to the pain of our own worthlessness.”
Also, if a child has low-self esteem, he/she likely won’t feel comfortable around new people or situations and may tend to avoid anything unfamiliar. Often, he/she will be hesitant to take risks or move out of his/her comfort zone. With this type of behaviour, the child may miss valuable social opportunities and situations where to learn and grow.
Low self-esteem in children often is the result of abuse, dysfunctional family relationships and lack of empathic communication, all of which significantly exist on Guyana’s social landscape. Without being provided with coping skills to deal with low self-esteem, such children may grow up into adults who then become abusive, depressed and suicidal.
In effect, low self-esteem is a precursor to abuse of all types as well as violence. It also results in depression and anxiety, both of which lead to suicide. For these reasons developing self-esteem and coping skills play a critical part of all training carried out by The Caribbean Voice (TCV). Current training programmes are the: ► Youth and Student Workshop, which has been presented to a number of schools and youth groups and which has been endorsed by the Ministry of Education which plans to make it part of the Health and Family Life Education curriculum in schools. A train the trainer session is currently being planned for West Coast Berbice to be attended by youth representatives who can then pass on the training to their groups and schools. A similar session will follow on the East Coast of Demerara;
► Teacher Training Workshop, which was launched on March third this year on the East Bank of Demerara and which has already been requested by a number of schools. This programme provides teachers with skills and the capacity to develop their own mental toughness and be able to deal with emotional and psychological problems their students face. This too has been endorsed by the Ministry of Education, which has offered to collaborate and get social workers involved in its implementation.
► Train the Trainer Workshop, which was launched in collaboration with Imam Bacchus & Sons at Affiance, Essequibo, on February 25th this year. This workshop trains others to become trainers for gatekeepers and to turnkey their training to their various communities and entities with which they are associated. The demand for this programme is also great and it will be taken to all regions over time, with East Berbice being the next stop.
► Employee Mental Health Workshop, which helps workers at various companies to be able to deal with stress and challenges and emotional and psychological issues. This will be launched later this month in Georgetown and then offered to businesses nationwide.
► Community Outreach, launched in 2014 and since taken to a number of communities, often in collaboration with other NGOs, Community Based Organizations and/or faith Based Organizations. Next stop is Wales, where the scope for widespread depression exists as a result of the closure of the sugar estate.
It is important to note that TCV is a fully voluntary, fully self-funded organization, which receives no grants