President Danny Faure chaired a multi-sectoral meeting this morning to ensure the provision of psychosocial support services for citizens in the country.  

Meeting attendees shared existing structures in place and ongoing initiatives to offer psychosocial support to the population, particularly following the multi-faceted impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Members agreed that there is an urgent need to provide additional mental health and psychosocial support to improve the overall health and wellbeing of citizens.

The President created a High-Level Committee to set up a National Psychosocial Support Services platform. This platform will offer various kinds of mental health and psychosocial support and services required by citizens, including counselling, coping with uncertainty, mental health support, parental assistance and budget management. Ensuing discussions centred on addressing any gaps in the proposed service in areas such as communication and education, designating focal contacts, and clarifying the various roles and responsibilities.

The High-Level Committee will be chaired by Amb. Marie-Pierre Lloyd.

Present for the meeting at State House was the Designated Minister, also the Minister for Home Affairs, Local Government, Youth and Sports, Mrs Macsuzy Mondon, the Minister for Family Affairs, Mrs Mitcy Larue, the Minister for Education, Secretary of State for the Department of Health, Amb. Marie-Pierre Lloyd, Principal Secretary for Social Affairs, PS Linda William-Melanie, Principal Secretary for Poverty Alleviation, Mr Alvin Lawrence, the Principal Secretary for Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education Dr Odile de Comarmond, the Principal Secretary for Higher Education and Human Resource Development, Dr Linda Barallon, the Principal Secretary for Local Government, Mrs Marie-Celine Jeannevol, the CEO of Agency for Social Protection, Mr Marcus Simeon, Advisor to the Minister, Mrs Beryl Naiken, Technical Advisor for Poverty Alleviation, Ms Nathalie Didon, Senior Policy Analyst for the Department of Local Government, Ms Margaret Lawen, and Clinical Psychologist Department of Health, Ms Anna-Lisa Labiche.