Today is World Mental Health Day. It is being observed internationally under the theme, "Making Mental Health A Global Priority — Scaling Up Services through Citizen Advocacy and Action." With such a focus, mental health advocacy groups in countries around the world are using this opportunity to "highlight the sad fact that there is still too little attention being given to helping people with mental health problems and to promoting mental well-being," according to a press statement from the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), which established World Mental Health Day in 1992.

Here in The Bahamas, the Mental Health Team of the Grand Bahama Health Services has scheduled an open forum, which will take place at the Foster B. Pestaina Auditorium of the Pro-Cathedral of Christ the King beginning at 10 a.m., focusing on four main topics: marijuana abuse, women and depression, living with mental illness and advocacy. Medical professionals will be on-hand to provide information about those areas and to answer any questions the public may have.

Educational programs of this nature are vitally important in The Bahamas, where the stigma attached to mental illness over the years has resulted in even some caring family members not doing all they could to assist a relative who may have been afflicted with some form of mental illness.

In the past, for a relative to be labelled as being "crazy" and confined to Sandilands Hospital in Fox Hill, which at one time was referred to as "The Crazy Hill," was something that other members of the family sought to hide. There were even some cases where the shame was so pervasive that the confined individual very seldom was visited by relatives, which contributed to an exacerbation of the mental illness. There were even times when, after a patient had been "cured," some family members were uncomfortable having them back in the home, and more often than not made their lives stressful enough to result in them having a relapse.

This kind of thinking about mental health may not be as prevalent in The Bahamas today as it was back then, but there is still that stigma attached to it, despite the vast improvements that have been made in how mental health is treated through the use of therapy drugs and counselling. It is known, for example, that in some cases — especially with regard to anxiety disorders, depression and some of the more common mental health issues — prescribed medication works wonders. Even in the case of persons who are certified to be "crazy," remarkable advances have been made over the years to successfully address cases of serious mental illness. Indeed, there is probably no aspect of the disease that is not treatable to ensure that someone who suffers from it cannot lead a relatively normal life.

This is why the wonderful job that the Mental Team of the Grand Bahama Health Services does to educate the public about mental health not only on World Mental Health Day, but throughout the year, is so important.

But that's very much the case today, and hopefully the forum at the Foster B. Pestaina Auditorium will be very well attended. For as the WFMH noted in its press statement: "Mental disorders do not choose their victims; they occur in all cultures and at all stages of the lifespan ... It's time for the world to listen and to act to improve mental health services and ready access to services by those experiencing serious mental health problems and disorders such as schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, and depression. That will be the central message of World Mental Health Day 2008