Monday, July 7, 2025
By EARYEL BOWLEG
Tribune Staff Reporter
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
FREE National Movement (FNM) leader Michael Pintard has declared the findings of the Ministry of Health’s Global School Health Report a “national emergency” demanding immediate and compassionate action, warning that The Bahamas risks losing a generation to mental health crises, violence, and substance abuse.
Mr Pintard described the report as painting a “deeply troubling picture” of Bahamian youth, with teens facing rising violence, social disconnection, and overwhelming economic pressures. He stressed that nearly every mental health indicator is trending in the wrong direction and called for collective responsibility to act before more young people slip through the cracks.
“This is not about blame. It is about responsibility,” he said, urging the nation to destigmatise mental health and create a culture where young Bahamians “feel seen, supported, and safe”.
The FNM is proposing the deployment of mental health professionals in all 53 public clinics to make preventative care accessible across the country. Mr Pintard’s plan includes introducing mental health first aid training in every public secondary school, equipping staff to recognise early warning signs in at-risk students. The party also wants to pilot digital therapeutics and telehealth services for Family Island residents lacking in-person care and to offer incentives that attract and retain young mental health specialists in the public sector.
Teen Challenge Bahamas executive director Eric Fox backed the report’s findings, warning that widespread alcohol use among teens has reached “mass levels.” He explained that many children are turning to alcohol and marijuana to cope with grief and trauma.
He argued legislation alone won’t solve the problem, since kids often access alcohol at home and imitate adults or give in to peer pressure. He noted that around half of the parents reaching out to his organisation worry about young men experiencing psychosis, including some sent from the US or Canada after displaying serious mental health issues. He urged parents to support their children, seek treatment, and avoid blaming themselves.
STRAW Inc Centre for Young Women executive director Therena Cunningham confirmed the report’s alignment with her organisation’s surveys, which found 54 percent of girls admitted to depression, 21 percent reported using recreational substances, and 36 percent engaged in unprotected sex. She said many girls are ambitious and high-achieving but suffer silently under academic and social pressures, often experiencing abuse or disrespect even in respected homes or religious settings.
She emphasised that despite numerous programmes targeting Bahamian girls, many still feel unheard and unsupported by adults in their lives.
She also criticised the government’s spending priorities, questioning why millions are allocated for hotels and roads but not for social and mental well-being.
She expressed doubt that the Ministry of Health’s report, presented by Health Minister Dr Michael Darville last week, would lead to change, arguing that its impact is undermined when politicians, rather than neutral experts, deliver such findings.
The Ministry of Health’s report, based on responses from students aged 13 to 18 across 35 schools on eight islands, revealed alarming trends: one in five teens has attempted suicide, one in four has contemplated it, and rates of persistent sadness, loneliness, self-harm, and substance abuse have surged since previous surveys. Covering substance abuse, sexual health, violence, nutrition, mental well-being, and community support, the findings revealed that in two-thirds of the 54 indicators tracked, outcomes for teens have deteriorated since 1998.
Comments
Porcupine says...
These children will follow in the footsteps of our adults, whom they watch very carefully.
And then, we wonder why our politicians, pastors, and police are such moral and professional failures.
This isn't the first generation on the slide downhill.
Yes, it is about responsibility.
But, it s also about a broken system which has produced a broken ruling class, a broken justice system, a broken police organization, a broken parenting system, which is producing our broken youth.
Until we embrace education as a national priority, nothing can change.
The last thing our politicians, especially this present administration, want is for a populace smart enough to understand the level of criminality that exists here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILQepXU…
Are we any different here?
Posted 7 July 2025, 12:01 p.m. Suggest removal
Seaman says...
Wow, Pintard seems lost as the rest of the politicians. He has failed to point out the real cause of why the youth of today is suffering. He realizes that if he spoke what was really wrong with the Bahamas, he would not be voted in. All have failed to speak the truth. We are a broken society possibly forever. I grew up in church all my life, heard everyone praying...Lord bless our Leaders, Law Officers, Children and so on and the Bahamas has gotten worse every year. The people praying most of them got lovers. The youth pastors playing up all the youth...all the while they think God doesn't see them.
The church can pray until Jesus returns and the Bahamas will not get any better. You are praying for something that he has already given you....It's called common sense. Until we as a nation accept and fix what's wrong, the Bahamas will be just another Sodom and Gomorrah.
Posted 7 July 2025, 1:16 p.m. Suggest removal
Empiricist says...
We need to connect all the dots that make up the total landscape of life in the Bahamas. We just can’t choose a few and say everything is going to be okay for our youth if we focus on them. Let’s get serious and look at the big picture.
Posted 7 July 2025, 3:25 p.m. Suggest removal
SP says...
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Youth depression is directly related to financial circumstances in the home as they watch underemployed and unemployed parents drown in debt!
Depressed youth see parents and families driven to disfunction due to lack of employment opportunities and financial hardships.
When they see parents can't survive, they have no hope for themselves, and are driven to suicidal tendencies.
**“This is not about blame" ?**
To the contrary. **This is ALL ABOUT 5 DECADES OF FAILED LEADERSHIP**
Posted 7 July 2025, 4:11 p.m. Suggest removal
Porcupine says...
You are exactly right with regards to economics.
Posted 7 July 2025, 4:23 p.m. Suggest removal
bogart says...
EVERY SINGLE STUDENT in the Bahamas is educated in the order etcetcetcetcetc of the House of PARLIAMENT and the Government, the Speaker, the Opposition, the Governor Generalthe King Charles lll and the extremely most sacred MACE and the power of the tradition, respect of the MACE.
Well didn't one of the Members of the Parliament throw the BAHAMIAN peoples MACE out of the window and nobody including all the colleagues and government haven't seem to yet charge anyone of this serious matter ----- in a really really really serious manner stopping the peoples business of the peoples house, but expect these teenagers to show respect????
Teenagers and all schoolchildren fully know of getting a detention, suspended a number of days off and expulsion and didn't expect the small penalty for this throwing the peoples MACE out of the Peoples Parliament with lots of Parliamentarians of both sides present.
The Parliamentarians and Legislators have had numbers of really terrible situations exposed in the media or gapseed and should have been better role models and examples to our children who will obviously become future leaders .
Posted 7 July 2025, 8:04 p.m. Suggest removal
Porcupine says...
Martin Luther King jr spoke of the absolute need for: A radical revolution of values."
Do we understand what that means?
It means respecting people, but totally rejecting the social status quo.
It means that we reject most all of the present ruling class and speak out against the injustices done on a daily basis.
It means opposite of how we think and act today.
I don't think we understand the message.
I don't think we understand the true Christian message, either.
Is this not apparent to all who are awake?
Posted 7 July 2025, 8:52 p.m. Suggest removal
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