Leading the charge - Stephen-Claude Hyatt helps to put minds at ease in missing-plane chaos

Shanica Blair, Gleaner Writer

Many Jamaicans were surprised last week when they found out that one of their own was part of the team counselling relatives of passengers on missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. Clinical psychologist Stephen-Claude Hyatt was spearheading the trauma team working with relatives and friends of the passengers.

Hyatt, who is head of the Mental Health Department at International SOS Beijing, an international medical facility, told Outlook that he and his team were offering psychological and psychiatric treatment to family members and friends as well as airline staff in one-to-one therapy sessions, group sessions, and public forums.

He said that, with Beijing being a 'travelling city' with many foreigners and locals travelling for work and school, many were becoming afraid to travel. "Children are now terrified to fly or for their parents to fly, and the silence on the issue at the beginning of the search was more traumatic than the event itself," the Calabar High School past student told Outlook.

He said that trauma affects both hemispheres of the brain. The left side, where formal learning takes place, is used to store memory, and the right is the creative side.

"When trauma happens, the left side closes down, the right has to take over the work. That is why, when people go through some trauma, they have what are called flashbacks, bits and pieces of information, things that happened years ago will seem like they happened just yesterday," Hyatt said.

The aim is to support re-association of the two hemispheres so that they can start functioning together again. When there is trauma, therapy has to be done sooner rather than later to help them make sense of what is happening. "With the relatives and friends of those on the missing plane, at first there was no information about the welfare of those on the plane, which made it difficult for individuals to process what was happening to them. But now that we know their fate, we have to help them to move past that," he said.

"We are dealing with a lot of children presenting to physicians with physical complaints, but then they are referred to mental health as it is psychological in nature. We have a nine-year-old boy from one of the international schools here who had both his parents on the plane," he continued.

Hyatt migrated to China eight years ago to support his wife who was sent there to help set up the Jamaican embassy in China in 2005. " I didn't go with her at first because I was working on a research paper. But I still visited, and it was not until February 2006 that I permanently joined her as I wanted to be a supportive husband."

Volunteering

It was after his move that he recognised that there was a big need for psychologists and psychiatrists in that country because of its large foreign community. That gave him the opportunity to start volunteering at the Beijing District Clinic where he started to make a name for himself. He specialises in family therapy, working with pre-teens, teens, adults and couples, administering psychological assessment instruments for mood, anxiety, traumatic and adjustment disorders.

"There was an earthquake in Sichuan Province. That was the year of the Olympics and it left hundreds dead and thousands displaced, and I was asked by the Red Cross to help out and the Jamaican embassy sponsored me as part of their contribution to the relief efforts," he said. He noted that, after that, he began receiving more calls for his services.

He said that International SOS, which is located in many countries where medical facilities are not up to par, had an opening for a clinical psychologist and he applied and got the job in 2009. He was made head of the Mental Health Department in 2010.

Despite all the good work he is doing abroad, Hyatt misses home. "I am very patriotic when it comes to Jamaica. I make sure I wear a Jamaica branded T-shirt or cap everywhere I go, so people won't mistake my nationality," he said. "I miss home a whole lot and the transition period was difficult. However, we got involved with a church here and it helped to make the transition process much easier. I am here in China and I know this is where I want to be right now, but I try to go home once or twice every year. I want to give back to Jamaica. I am so saddened and disheartened with what is going on in Jamaica now, which is why I think it's important for persons like me to always go back and contribute," he said.

Growing up

As
a child, Hyatt lived a very simple life with his family and, although
they weren't rich, his parents who were both teachers ensured that he
and his siblings were well taken care of. "I am who I am because of my
parents; my mom, Gladys, and dad, Izett, who passed away in 2011; and my
uncle, Bishop Dr Fedlyn Beason, who was and continues to be my mentor,
have taught me how to persevere, not give up in the midst of struggles,
and to always show respect to others and be
humble.

Hyatt told Outlook that his
love for psychology started at a very young age when persons at church
and school were always coming to him for advice and suggestions.
"Growing up, I had always wanted to do medicine, then at another time,
law. Then my love for psychology started to get the best of me around
the age of 15. Persons were always coming to me for advice and
suggestions and I started to get very curious about the human mind and
condition, how it works and people's thought
processes."

After majoring in theology with a minor in
psychology at the United Theological College of the West Indies in
conjunction with the University of the West Indies (UWI), he followed
his true passion and did his master's in clinical psychology at UWI
before moving on to the United States to do his PhD, as well as a
postgraduate diploma in family therapy, HIV/AIDS counselling, and
clinical supervision at Fielding Graduate University in the United
States, and the Wiesbaden Academy of Psychotherapy, in
Germany.

But Hyatt was not always on top of his game
and it was a very hard lesson learnt while he was in first form at
Calabar High School why he is the man he is today. 'Our greatest glory
lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall' is the
mantra for Hyatt who failed school at one point in his life and vowed
never to fail again. "I failed first form and was almost expelled from
Calabar. I was very embarrassed by this as my mom had to come to school
and beg them to keep me," he said.

Chronicling the
little events that took place before he was faced with the predicament
in high school; he divulged that 'when he was in grade four at the
Braeton Primary School, of which his father and mother were principal
and vice-principal, respectively, he was moved to Bridgeport Primary
School because his parents were convinced that he was not doing well in
school because they were the principals there.

"I used
to be very mischievous in primary school (not in a bad way, he
interjected). I didn't like academics that my sister and brother were
very good at and so my parents moved me to Bridgeport Primary because
they thought I would be less distracted; and I stayed there until I
moved on to high school," he said.

"I commuted from
Bridgeport to Kingston every day to go to school with my sister who went
to St Andrew High School for Girls. It was a challenge because of the
shift system. I hated the morning shift because I had to wake up from 8
a.m. to get to school and I was late for school most days. However, one
of my teachers changed that. Madam Davis, my French teacher who was the
year supervisor at the time, insisted that I come and tell her good
morning every day before classes and, because of that, right now, I am a
stickler for time. I am never on time. I am always early," he
laughingly
stressed.

shanica.blair@gleanerjm.com