Experts warn T&T now facing adolescent mental health crisis

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

Be­tween Jan­u­ary 2024 and Feb­ru­ary 2026, 22 chil­dren un­der the age of 18 ei­ther died by sui­cide or at­tempt­ed to do so, with mid-ado­les­cents aged 15 and 16 ac­count­ing for near­ly three-quar­ters of the cas­es.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) said males ac­count­ed for 63.6 per cent of in­ci­dents and were sig­nif­i­cant­ly more like­ly to die by sui­cide than fe­males. The South­ern and Cen­tral Di­vi­sions record­ed 59 per cent of cas­es, while 2025 had the high­est num­ber over­all. Over the re­view pe­ri­od, no clear down­ward trend was ev­i­dent, sig­nalling a per­sis­tent pub­lic health con­cern.

Child psy­chol­o­gist Dr Sarah Sub­han said ado­les­cent men­tal health is com­plex and in­flu­enced by mul­ti­ple fac­tors. She ex­plained that dur­ing ado­les­cence, young peo­ple must nav­i­gate rapid­ly chang­ing ex­pec­ta­tions and de­vel­op­men­tal needs, which can wors­en ex­ist­ing, of­ten un­di­ag­nosed, men­tal health chal­lenges.

“In the Caribbean, we have a rig­or­ous ex­am cul­ture and very high stan­dards that some young peo­ple are ex­pect­ed to meet, along with so­cial pres­sures wors­ened by so­cial me­dia en­gage­ment, in­clud­ing cy­ber­bul­ly­ing, peer re­la­tion­ship is­sues and sub­stance abuse. If un­der­ly­ing men­tal health is­sues go un­ad­dressed or un­no­ticed, there is a greater like­li­hood that a young per­son may re­sort to un­healthy cop­ing mech­a­nisms and may be­come so over­whelmed that they feel self-harm or sui­cide is their on­ly op­tion,” Sub­han said.

Ex­plain­ing why males are more like­ly to die by sui­cide, she said many are dis­cour­aged from ex­press­ing emo­tions and of­ten choose more lethal means.

“This is linked to a cul­ture where they feel they must ap­pear strong and not at­tempt and fail. This cul­ture of tox­ic mas­culin­i­ty and si­lence around men­tal health needs to be ad­dressed through stronger psy­choso­cial sup­port, not on­ly in pub­lic spaces but al­so with­in fam­i­lies and peer groups, where open com­mu­ni­ca­tion and ac­cess to help are es­sen­tial,” she said.

Sub­han em­pha­sised the need for greater aware­ness of men­tal health hot­lines and ser­vices and rec­om­mend­ed in­creased place­ment of so­cial work­ers and psy­chol­o­gists in schools. She al­so called for men­tal health ed­u­ca­tion to be in­clud­ed in the cur­ricu­lum to help chil­dren reg­u­late emo­tions, recog­nise warn­ing signs and seek help. Par­ents, she said, should be alert to changes in rou­tine, with­draw­al, ir­ri­tabil­i­ty, and eat­ing or sleep­ing pat­terns.

“In the cur­rent so­cio-eco­nom­ic cli­mate, par­ents may not al­ways have the time or en­er­gy to be ful­ly present be­cause of work and oth­er pres­sures. How­ev­er, even five min­utes a day spent check­ing in with your child and show­ing in­ter­est in their lives could be life-sav­ing,” she said.

Sub­han added that pro­fes­sion­al in­ter­ven­tion is crit­i­cal when warn­ing signs emerge, in­clud­ing cre­at­ing safe­ty plans and re­mov­ing items that could be used for self-harm.

Child psy­chother­a­pist Gre­go­ry Isaacs echoed con­cerns about ado­les­cent males and the pres­sures they face.

“So­cial me­dia has a sig­nif­i­cant and of­ten neg­a­tive in­flu­ence on young males. At the same time, many are un­der in­tense pres­sure and have very lim­it­ed sup­port sys­tems to re­ly on,” Isaacs said.

He not­ed that males are gen­er­al­ly less like­ly than fe­males to seek help, of­ten feel­ing com­pelled to man­age prob­lems alone.

“Fe­males are more like­ly to share their prob­lems and ask for help. Some males be­lieve they must fight their own bat­tles, which in­creas­es their risk,” he said.

Isaacs al­so warned about the ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty of lethal means in the home, in­clud­ing tox­ic sub­stances and lig­a­ture points, and urged par­ents to take pre­ven­tive mea­sures. He high­light­ed sys­temic gaps with­in schools, in­clud­ing short­ages of guid­ance of­fi­cers, coun­sel­lors and so­cial work­ers.

“There needs to be stronger col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween schools and po­lice, in­clud­ing prin­ci­pals, heads of de­part­ment and sta­tion com­man­ders, so they can work to­geth­er. There are agen­cies with so­cial work­ers who can as­sist,” he said.

The TTPS said it plays a front­line role in re­spond­ing to sui­cide and at­tempt­ed sui­cide cas­es, sta­bil­is­ing scenes, pro­vid­ing im­me­di­ate care and re­fer­ring vul­ner­a­ble youths to ap­pro­pri­ate sup­port ser­vices. Of­fi­cers al­so in­ves­ti­gate com­plet­ed sui­cides and col­lect da­ta crit­i­cal for na­tion­al sur­veil­lance, help­ing au­thor­i­ties iden­ti­fy high-risk groups and com­mu­ni­ties.

Hang­ing ac­count­ed for 91 per cent of com­plet­ed sui­cides, while in­ges­tion of poi­so­nous sub­stances was the most com­mon method in at­tempts, un­der­scor­ing the link be­tween ac­cess to lethal means and fa­tal out­comes. Mid-ado­les­cent males re­main the most vul­ner­a­ble group, high­light­ing the ur­gent need for tar­get­ed in­ter­ven­tions in schools, high-in­ci­dence com­mu­ni­ties and homes.