The Mental Health Foundation
The staff and management at the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) would like to express their gratitude to everyone who has supported the foundation’s work in the media and otherwise during this past tumultuous week. It is good to know that so many members of the community know and understand the circumstances in which we are working.
Concerning the events that sparked the recent outcry from the community, MHF’s team would like to extend its sincere compassion to the 9 year old victim and her family. MHF cannot currently make any statements concerning the mental health of the alleged offender, as due process is currently being followed to evaluate this. We can disclose however, that the alleged offender was not a patient at MHF before the assault took place.
The Goal of the Foundation
The goal of the foundation is to help and treat all persons in need of our care and prevent crisis situations and admissions. Because crises cannot always be averted, the crisis team is on call 24/7 (emergency number: 5205556). The MHF team has an extremely difficult job; approaching persons with problematic behavior requires specific skills and lots of patience. Follow-up on patients who do not show up for treatment is very important, time consuming and difficult but the team is out there daily.
The foundation has 2 psychiatrists, a psychologist and nurses who provide outpatient care to hundreds of clients as well as inpatient care to 16 clients at a time. During office hours, the clinic is open for treatment and counseling.
Reducing Stigma
During the past year, MHF has been attempting to create awareness among the general public regarding the work that is being done and the efforts still to be made. We are actively working to reduce the stigma attached to mental health, in the hope that more members of the community will feel free to approach MHF as soon as they realize that something is wrong, with a loved one or with themselves.
What have we been doing?
· Go to our website; www.mhf-sxm.com, where you will find a lot of information about mental health in general and about how we are able to help if you are in mental distress
· The anti-stigma spots are on the site, teachers please show them to your students, youth we encourage you to check us out.
· Schools are visited and presently there is an anti-bullying program in progress
· Mr. Psych is in the Health update every other week.
Human resources and financial constraints:
MHF works with an extremely tight budget and a small core staff, which results in our human as well as our financial resources being thinly stretched at times. These problems have been exacerbated by recent budget cuts in spite of a growing clientele. This leaves the organization in a precarious position, as the amount of crises tends to increase when we are too short staffed to provide adequate follow-up care for patients in the community.
Furthermore, it is important to note that patients have rights. By law, MHF can only treat an individual involuntarily if that person is a danger to himself or the environment. In order to reduce the number of cases in need of involuntary treatment, MHF needs more human and financial resources to provide adequate care to those in danger of progressing to this stage. It is our sincere wish that the recent calls for adequate mental health care on the island will materialize into sustainable measures to build on the work that is already being done.