S.S.B., Oil Company make life better at Rockview
It may be called a hospital, but the place known as Rockview has never been high on the health system’s list of priorities. Today, however, some people who care lended a much needed hand.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Plans are well underway to finally relocate patients from the Rockview Psychiatric Hospital at mile twenty-one on the Western highway to Belmopan. The move should be completed by the end of the year following the construction of the new mental health facility projected to cost over a million dollars.
Margaret Ventura, C.E.O., M.O.H
“We are currently looking at the proposals with the view to finalizing them and construction will begin certainly within the next couple weeks as long as we get passed the paper work.”
Presently there are forty-nine men and women living in an institution that was built to accommodate twenty patients. The buildings have also deteriorated, prompting one group of people to improve the situation. Following the 2006 Social Security Board’s Ride Across Belize Project, the S.S.B.’s employees have been cleaning up the mess.
Rhojani Perriott Toombs, Manager, S.S.B.’s Public Relations
“We came out here and we took pictures and there were holes in the roofs, the beds; people were sleeping on cardboard boxes opened up on the raw springs, there were…man it was really bad, it was really bad. The nurses stations needed help, the bathrooms needed help, even the drains they were filled with debris and just normal living things that if someone takes care of everyday it won’t pile up, but because nobody’s doing it, it just piled up. The grass was high, just stuff that would make people comfortable; if you had to live here, you would want taken care of.”
The short term effort has made life a little bit more comfortable for the residents until it is time to move. According to Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Health Margaret Ventura, the new facility is part of broader efforts to reform the health sector.
Margaret Ventura
“We are looking at a more integrated approach to health care. We are looking at a community oriented approach to health care and we are also trying to find ways of making the residents or those who are housed in the facility feel a lot more comfortable and at home.”
Ventura says the first phase of the three part project has already been completed.
Margaret Ventura
“For example, as we speak, the houses where the residents will actually live, those houses have been built for quite sometime now and then we have the occupational therapy centre that will be put in place, as well as the facility.”
The entire project is being funded by the Government of Belize and the Inter American Development Bank. In the interim, other concerned companies, like Belize Natural Energy Limited, have also extended a helping hand. Today, the oil company through its working relationship with the Colorado based charity Project Cure, handed over a substantial donation of equipment. According to MOH Policy and Planning Director, Doctor Peter Allen the medical equipment and supplies will greatly benefit the Rockview staff and patients.
Dr. Peter Allen, Director, Policy and Planning Unit, M.O.H
“They requested beds, of course, and mattresses and we were able to source those. They also requested some exercise machines -bicycles, the treadmills and for occupational therapy- and I believe some computer supplies.”.
In the meantime, the S.S.B. staff will continue to make monthly visits to Rockview.
Rhojani Perriott Toombs
“It’s a project that’s very close to our hearts. We come out here every month, the staff does, voluntarily, with no help or no incentive from the board or the organization and we come out here to clean up, and to paint, and to try and make things more liveable for the people who live here. So for me, and I would dare say for social security, our whole involvement in this project has been really fulfilling in more ways than one.”.
Ventura says there are no immediate plans for the Rockview compound once the patients have been relocated to the new mental health facility, but the intention is to use it for other health related services.
Among the donations, valued at seven hundred thousand dollars, were an operating table that was given to the Western Regional Hospital and an X-ray Unit that was handed over to the clinic in Independence Village.
