Belize and Britain team up to improve mental health
Mental health in Belize tends to be equated with wherever the “crazy house” happens to be located at any given time. For many years there was Seaview, a colonial era hell hole on the Barracks. More recently we have Rockview, a somewhat less hellish hole off the Western Highway near Gracy Rock. But mental health in Belize is more than just the incarceration of society’s misfits…as I discovered this morning.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
At official ceremonies this morning, Prime Minister Said Musa has endorsed a Mental Health Partnership Project between Great Britain and Belize. The project is being undertaken to strengthen mental health services in the country. Dr. Claudina Cayetano, a psychiatrist and President of the Mental health Association, says mental health is not only the responsibility of the Ministry of Health but it should be everybody’s business.
Dr. Claudina Cayetano, President, Mental Health Assoc.
“I think the difference is that what we are trying to do is present to people what we have. Because you see mental health especially when we talk about promotion, so it’s not only a business for Ministry of Health, other organizations should also be involved. So the idea is to get all these other partners so we can have this discussion and develop a health care pathway where all the other stakeholders are involved and this is a great opportunity to do that since we also have the British partners here and that will help to cement the goals that we want to achieve.”
The project will establish an exchange programme between mental health officials in Belize and Britain. Already BBMHPP has held seminars with mental health professionals and forums that encouraged local debate on mental health and distress.
Samantha Priestly, Facilitator, Partnership Programme
“It’s going to look at exchanging professionals between services. We’re here for four weeks, we have been around all the districts in Belize. We have put on professional seminars, we have trained some staff at Rockview, and we’ve done district mental health forums. So it’s going to have far reaching benefits in Belize this year. And what we are hoping is that next year, Belizean partners can come to England and do a similar program over there, which will help us learn about the Belizean system of mental health care and also the focus of the project is on cross culture working, and with Belize being such an multi-cultural country, there is a lot that we can learn about how Belize deals with and takes care of the needs of the different cultures here.”
The idea for the partnership is the brainchild of Gilroy Ferguson, a Belizean who is living in England and works as an Acting Director of a private Health Care Company in Manchester. Ferguson worked extensively with mental health patients in Belize before taking up residence in the United Kingdom.
Gilroy Ferguson, Founder, BBMHPP
“I think as a Belizean who has worked in the psychiatric services here in Belize, who left to go abroad to train, I recognized that there was value in both getting my colleagues in England to see a different form of working and also to give the people in Belize the opportunity to do the reverse. Because there are all different milieus of services and management of the mentally ill in both countries and I thought that having an opportunity for me to learn was quite an important issue for me and for the good.”
Not only will programmes be launched but the Government of Belize will allocate funds to construct a much-needed new psychiatric hospital in Belmopan. This structure will replace the present institution, Rockview Hospital, which has badly deteriorated over the years. Musa says his government recognizes that the time has come to improve the way mental health service is delivered to Belizeans.
Prime Minster Said Musa
“In response to our request that has been mentioned, the Japanese Government has agreed to provide a grant for the building of an acute…or the contribution towards the building of an acute psychiatric unit planned for the Belmopan Hospital, and that project is already underway. We are also actively seeking to identify funding and we have approached a few governments already, funding for a new mental hospital to replace the Rockview facility. We talked about Seaview, but Rockview is not much to talk about either.”
The Mental Health Association says eventually, they would like to see acute psychiatric units in hospitals across the country.
