Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health concern worldwide, with 1 in 3 women experiencing physical, emotional, sexual, and/or financial violence perpetuated by a current or former intimate partner. The prevalence of IPV is reported to be even greater in Guyana. According to data released by the United Nations, one in every two Guyanese women ages 16-64 have experienced such violence in their lifetime. Over half of the victims did not seek help, with the leading reason being the belief that violence is normal and not serious. IPV has significant mental health consequences, including PTSD, depression, and suicide, and is thought to contribute to Guyana’s high rates of suicide. The UN report also found that the majority of Guyanese women seek help from the police, religious leaders, and healthcare workers, with 98% reporting they did not seek help from institutions aiming to address IPV such as shelters and hotlines. These data reveal the critical role of healthcare workers in intervening in IPV and providing support to victims. However, the report found that fewer than 1/10 women who sought help from healthcare workers received counselling on IPV, revealing gaps in sufficient training and preparedness in the healthcare field.

This educational workshop aimed for healthcare workers will provide psychoeducation on how to screen for IPV and provide brief psychosocial therapies for survivors. The workshop will review evidence-based screening tools, risk assessments, and safety plans, including important questions to ask victims and how to provide trauma-informed care. It will also provide community resources available for survivors in Guyana. The workshop will also highlight effective therapeutic approaches to address IPV in global settings that have been identified in current literature. It will review important themes to emphasize when counselling survivors such as, motivational interviewing, promoting self-efficacy and empowerment, and addressing self-blame.

Objective: To explore the nursing students’ perceptions and experiences of online learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic and to identify barriers and facilitators to online nursing education in Guyana. Design and Methods: A qualitative phenomenological approach was used. Five focus group discussions (6 to 8 students each) with durations of 60 to 90 minutes from five respective schools of nursing were conducted via zoom and recorded during January to March 2022. Data was transcribed from audio file to text file. Codes were generated using MAXQDA analytics Pro 2022 version 22.2.1.   Results: Thematic analysis led to the following themes and subthemes: There were mixed perceptions towards online learning. Some preferred online learning due to its “flexibility,” “Convenience” and “access to recorded sessions,” and others preferred face-to-face: Online learning is “good for theory only”, but for practical sessions face to face interactions is necessary, “Sense of isolation” “No student interaction” “less student- faculty interaction”. Barriers identified were “internet connectivity issues”, “Electricity issues” and “Technological issues”. Facilitators were “convenience” “reduced cost in transportation” “saves time” and opportunity to become “tech savvy”.
Conclusion: Online classes are suitable for theoretical aspects but require face-to-face interaction for practical components. Training is required in how to use the following online platforms. Students also encouraged tutors to use innovative ways of teaching.

Clients enrolling in HIV/AIDS programs are expected to appear regularly for medical checkups, to collect Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and receive adherence counseling. When patients do not honor an appointment, they are considered non-compliant with clinic visits. After three consecutive and unsuccessful attempts, patients become “lost to follow-up (LFTU), a term used to define patients with no contact with the health services for 90 days or more” (Boulle, 2008). ” LTFU can cause serious consequences such as discontinuation of antiretroviral treatment and increased risk of death. In resource-limited settings, such as Guyana, where treatment has become available through the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART), LTFU hampers prevention, treatment and mental health services for patients enrolled in HIV/AIDS programs (Zhou, 2012).When clients default on a clinic appointment, information is passed to the staff to enter an electronic patient database called International Quality clinical chart (IQ Chart) (AIDS Relief, 2009). During this period, the program initiates methods to contact the patients using the information provided by the EMR. When a patient becomes lost to follow-up, the healthcare facilities are no longer required to provide prevention, treatment and support services for the client. The staff will continue to follow up with clients but these efforts are unsuccessful because patients may migrate, relocate or transfer to another healthcare facility. This paper is a pilot study conducted in 2011 to assess the capacity of staff at two of Guyana’s private healthcare facilities, St Joseph’s Mercy (SJMH) and Davis Memorial Hospital (DMH) on how effectively patients are tracked who are non-compliant and LTFU. The presentation will examine IQ Chart’s use to monitor patient retention in treatment and initiate contact for those who become LTFU to provide support services (counseling and support group meetings) in a bid to bring them back to treatment.

Suicide today is responsible for at least 800,000 deaths worldwide. Around 30% of suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries (LAMIC), making it the eighteenth cause of death in 2016 (WHO, 2016). Therefore, the objective of this present work was to investigate the evolution of suicidal ideation in Brazil, using the National Health Surveys (Programa Nacional de Saúde, em português) of 2013 and 2019 in the stratum of people with depressive symptoms, seeking associations between sociodemographic variables and geographic areas of Brazil. Methods: The study uses PNS data base from 2013 and 2019, a national household-based survey, focusing on samples of individuals who had depressive symptoms (14,303 individuals in 2013 and 2019), assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Results: Today there is an increase in the prevalence of depressive symptoms, proportional to the increase in suicidal ideation, by approximately 10% between 2013 and 2019. In 2013, approximately 1,495 individuals presented suicidal ideation and in 2019, approximately 2,609 individuals in the depression symptoms sample.Furthermore, the proportion of individuals with suicidal ideation does not depend so much on the category or macro-region. This variation exists according to the population with depressive symptoms. Around 30% of people who present depressive symptoms have some level of suicidal ideation. Conclusion: Today there is a direct correlation between depressive symptoms and the existence of some level of suicidal ideation in this population. More studies are needed regarding which variables may be attributable to suicidal ideation in Brazil, as well as effective interventions in terms of public health in Brazil are extremely important.

Children of parents involved with the criminal justice system (CJS) have higher rates of CJS involvement (e.g., being arrested) than the general population. However, research in children of parents involved with the CJS is scarce, and little is known about the factors involved in the “transmission” of risk for CJS involvement from parents to children. We will present findings from the Stress and Justice study, a two-wave representative study of parents involved with the CJS and their children, plus control parents and their children. We examined the relationship between parental involvement with the CJS and three main sets of variables: children’s psychiatric disorders, delinquent behavior, personality disorders, functional improvement, and CJS involvement. We applied a state-of-the-art machine-learning causal discovery analysis (CDA) algorithm that can distinguish causation from correlation due to confounding variables. With this CDA, we modeled the causal relationships among all variables in the data set to identify causal pathways leading to children’s CJS involvement. Discovering causal factors involved in children’s CJS involvement is essential to identify candidate intervention targets to reduce the risk of CJS involvement during childhood and adolescence.