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THE LONG Easter weekend is usually a blissful time for families across the country. But while many chocolate Easter eggs will be hunted down and freshly baked hot cross buns consumed, this Easter is a bittersweet one.
Families are facing unprecedented pressures. The cost of living has, for some, reached a crisis point. In addition to gas price hikes and increases in the cost of school supplies, taxation looms given plans to resume property tax. At the same time, many have already suffered losses to their income due to unemployment.
The Government is reportedly mulling the removal of VAT from more grocery items, and it has no plans to raise fares on public transportation.
But there are many who feel the burden of economic adjustment is not being borne fairly enough.
This Easter, many will be observing the holidays in the shadow of tragedy, having lost loved ones to the virus. In fact, some are still tackling covid19 directly and remain sequestered in quarantine. This week cases rose by 15.4 per cent.
Though all hope for a return to pre-pandemic life, it is clear the pandemic, which separated so many families permanently and temporarily, is not completely over.
Even as we grapple with the complexities of the epidemiological outlook, there is also another pandemic that must be grappled with in the coming days, months and years: that in relation to mental health.
Covid19 has caused unimaginable pain and trauma and we will only, as a society, come to grips with this aspect of our pandemic experience over time.
It is good that Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh has begun to roll out measures to decentralise mental health care through the launch of a new online portal.
There are significant economic and social barriers to families accessing appropriate levels of support for their mental health needs. The State must not only do things like launch online portals. It must work on improving its record when it comes to mental health services at its facilities, and on making healthcare more accessible generally.
Families are also bearing the effects of crime, violence and abuse. Such matters are complex, but they are not assisted by a situation in which detection rates are low, witnesses are unwilling to come forward, criminal proceedings delayed, and prosecutors overburdened.
Too many children continue to die. Agencies like the Children’s Authority continue to be overwhelmed by reports. Recent stresses within families may play a role in many cases.
So this Easter, if you are lucky enough to be able to sip a cognac on the beach while inhaling a bake and shark, spare a thought for other families who, this weekend, are ill at ease.
The post Supporting families in the ‘new normal’ appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.