Psychiatric clinic moves to more comfortable quarters
A lot has been written and broadcast about conditions at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, but not so much has been said about other medical facilities in Belize. This morning I visited a health center in Belize City where a small physical change of venue should mean a large improvement for those suffering with mental illness.
The new Psychiatric Clinic located upstairs of the Cleopatra White Health Centre on Princess Margaret Drive, is a big improvement from the previous office downstairs. According to Dr. Claudina Cayetano, the Chief Psychiatrist, the old facility was no longer up to the task.
Dr. Claudina Cayetano, Chief Psychiatrist
“It is the crowdedness. It is a very small place, and being so small, what happens is you can’t provide as many, in terms of comfort for the patient. If the patient is very anxious or paranoid, you don’t have that privacy that you will be able to have coming up here now.”
It’s not only mentally ill patients that stand to benefit from the clinic, but there is now a comfortable place for those patients who come in just for advice and counseling. Additional rooms as well have been put in, to hold those patients whose conditions are best treated in isolation. The idea, says Cayetano, is not to lock up those who are extremely agitated or suffering from hallucinations, but to better talk to them without any distraction.
During ceremonies officially opening the clinic, another mental health problem was also addressed. It was mentioned that in Belize, mentally ill patients are still being stigmatized as being “crazy,” but as reminded by Kathy Esquivel, the chairlady of the Belize Mental Health Advisory Board, not only is the word outdated, but mental illness is not an all or nothing proposition.
Kathy Esquivel, Chairlady, Mental Health Advisory Board
“And mental health is a degradation. It is not that you have in one place people who are perfectly, perfectly sane and in another place, people who are perfectly, perfectly insane. All of us fit somewhere in that continuity. Some of us are nearer to the sane side and some of us are nearer to the insane side and we don’t stay in one place. We can be reasonably sane at one time and then with stress and other actions in our lives or things that can happen, we can move over and then we can move back.”
Dr. Claudina Cayetano
“I personally believe that once we are more, much more understanding of the mental illness and mental health issues, then I think people will be able to be more understanding of people who suffer from a mental disorder.”
Cayetano says the clinic handles cases ranging from psychotic disorders to manic depression. There are also a number of school aged children that come in with attention deficient problems. Patients who are chronically ill will continue being treated at the Rockview Hospital.
A new mental health counseling service has also been recently opened at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
