As the society reels from its violent wounds, there seems no immediate way to staunch the torrents of blood. Many of the perpetrators of violent acts are barely out of their teens and several citizens have succumbed to the temptation to dismiss that generation as lost, but not everyone is so pessimistic about the present or the future.
Commenting on the mental state of the society in our last issue, psychiatrist Professor Gerard Hutchinson contended that more should be done to help these young people.
“I think a lot of them could be reached if we had systems and structures in place to reach them, it is not that they don’t care but they have been taught or conditioned not to care. Once they’re taken out of that environment, they become concerned again about the things that most people in society are.”
Mentorship at many levels was an important aspect of reaching them, he said.
“People recognise that the younger people in whichever context, professional, school, religious, need that kind of guidance. The key thing there is stability, as many people have said, single parent homes are not a new phenomenon, he said....
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