Today, October 10, 2025, World Mental Health Day, is as important as ever. The theme, ‘Access to services – mental health in catastrophes and emergencies’, highlights the urgent need for systems that are resilient, equitable, and community-based. This is important for us as we can all acknowledge that disasters are the surest ways that we can see the inequalities and inequities embedded in our systems. It is at this point we see the strains on our well-being or our general resources. As a result, emergency responses must include mental health.
At KAHLE Journey Limited we operationalise this theme every day by how we act in assisting communities (proactively and reactively) who need to be furnished with the necessary skills to build resilience and heal. Our aim is to contribute to the decentralisation of care and educate the population on how they can administer care to themselves and each other so that there is greater equity for mental health. This can then facilitate concentration on the more severe cases, which would lead to better outcomes. This, in essence, is social justice in psychological action.
All sectors are and can be trained in emotional literacy and trauma-awareness to transform whether classrooms, homes, or workplaces. Workshops can equip every sector and level of society to recognise trauma’s impact and respond with empathy rather than punishment and dismissals.
For many Jamaican communities, traditional therapy is inaccessible or stigmatised. That’s why we are seeking to create opportunities for all categories of individuals to access and learn how to give psychological support in their everyday spaces.
Silence is complicity. Psychologists must advocate for systemic reform in various areas such as incarceration, education, and mental health funding. In fact, our health sector needs attention as trauma-informed care becomes a central feature, starting with training. If this becomes our reality, we can then say we have a truly integrative health sector.
In Jamaica, crises abound — rising suicide rates, persistent violence, overcrowded schools, and fragile mental health systems. These are not isolated challenges, but rather they are systemic breakdowns. As psychologists, we must step up, as through our work we are primed with knowledge and skills to do this “justice work”. We can even go further to help push for a shift to more proactive preparation in as many areas of human life to help reduce the strain of crises (both man-made and natural). Social justice needs psychology’s insights to shape effective healing responses.
World Mental Health Day’s 2025 theme is both a challenge and a call to action to build resilient, trauma-informed systems, community-led responses, and accessible psychological support in moments of crisis, before and beyond.
Western psychology often emphasises individualism, but Caribbean healing traditions are communal at their core. Ubuntu (“I am because we are”) reminds us that emotional well-being is shared, not solitary. As a result, through interventions such as our Tuff It Out and Buil’ Series and our KAHLE Journey Unheard Podcast, we are offering easy-to-use strategies and offering spaces to the public to aid in education and self-care practices.
Psychology and social justice are inseparable. Social injustices inflict psychological harm; psychology, when justice-aligned, becomes a tool for systemic healing. As we recognise World Mental Health Day, let’s answer its call by ensuring that every person, even in emergencies, can access mental health care. Let’s expand beyond traditional psychology practices and enter into communities, schools, and policies.
To heal the mind, we must heal the world. To heal the world, we must transform how we understand our minds, our bodies, and the social roots.
Verol Billett is an associate clinical psychologist, clinical director at KADM & Associates, and team lead for Healing at KAHLE Journey Limited, a multi-layered non-profit that combines psychological expertise with community outreach, training, and creative advocacy. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or @KAHLEJourney
