Ministry promoting speedy reintegration of mental health patients

Jul 18, 2017 News

Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings

Although public hospitals have long been straddled with giving care to persons with mental health conditions for prolonged periods, moves are afoot to make this a thing of the past.
This is according to Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings.
“There has been a paradigm shift [as it relates] to us having to house these patients with mental health illnesses. The faster we manage them and get them rehabilitated and back into society, the better [it would be],” said Minister Cummings.
But according to the Public Health Minister, the support of family members in this regard is also very important.
There have been reports that the families of some persons suffering from mental conditions would much rather abandon them at public health facilities such as the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC] rather than help to ensure they receive treatment and return home.
This state of affairs has reportedly been a burden on the GPHC which has the responsibility of being the main Region Four hospital and the country’s main referral public health facility.
Minister Cummings said that the approach that the Public Health sector is embracing as it relates to dealing with patients with mental illness is to have them rehabilitated swiftly and thoroughly enough to become productive citizens.
However, in the event it is not possible to rehabilitate patients fast enough, efforts will still be made to have them relocated to a facility suitable for extended care.
“Right now what is happening, at the Georgetown Public Hospital for instance, they are stabilising them at the Accident and Emergency [Department] and maybe keep them for a day or two,” said Dr. Cummings.
Although patients can at times be attended to and efficiently managed at the Accident and Emergency Unit, there are times that those with acute conditions require extended treatment offer at the hospital’s Psychiatric Department.
But according to Dr. Cummings, “The goal now is not to have persons there for weeks and months, it is to get them quickly managed, rehabilitated and returned to their families.”
In cases where patients require further mental health care they can be transferred to the National Psychiatric Hospital in Berbice. According to Minister Cummings, the Ministry has plans to rehabilitate that facility with a view to improving its capacity to better care for patients.
As part of its efforts to improve its provision of mental health care, the Public Health Ministry has in place a Mental Health Unit tasked with overseeing the delivery of mental health care inclusive of deriving the necessary policies to enhance care in this regard.
However, the construction of a Mental Health Institute which is slated to be completed by this year end will add another dimension to the delivery of care. The Institute, according to Minister Cummings, will, among other things, serve as an outpatient facility for persons suffering from mental illnesses.
This is important, she said, because “we don’t really want Georgetown Public Hospital to be an outpatient as such [for patients with mental illness]. We hope to have occupational therapy and a variety of other services, so that persons can go there and have treatment and redress of their situation.”
But even as measures are being implemented to enhance the delivery of mental health care, Dr. Cummings assured that deliberate efforts are also being made to improve security measures. “We are in the process of beefing up our security at all of the health facilities,” said Minister Cummings. Several persons said to be of unsound mind have in the past wandered into public health care facilities demanding services and at times have intimated staff and patients by their mere presence.
There have been reports that this situation has been a regular feature at the GPHC. As a semi-autonomous organisation, Minister Cummings said that the GPHC has the privilege of catering to its own security needs to help ensure its services are carried out in a safe and secured environment.

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