Vasquez Family Clamors for Mental Health Training at Police Academy

The family of Nestor Vasquez Junior, who was beaten to death while in detention at the Queen Street Police Station back in June, met with the Mental Health Association this morning, before criticizing the Belize Police Department.  At a press conference held immediately after the meeting, the Vasquez family said that the department has been lethargic in its response to bringing criminal charges against its own for causing the death of their sixty-year-old sibling.  Those are the three officers, including Sergeant Shawn Walton, PC Edward Pitterson, and PC Bernard Cayetano, who were on duty at the precinct during that shift when the mentally ill Vasquez was placed in a holding cell along with Collin Francis who is also said to be suffering from mental illness.  Coming out of the discussion with the Mental Health Association, it was agreed that there should be a push for the police department to reinstitute mental health sensitivity training in its curriculum for recruits attending the training academy in Belmopan.

Jules Vasquez, Brother of Deceased

Jules Vasquez

“We had a very productive and constructive meeting with the Mental Health Association and there are things that we want to push for as a family that we want to use our influence that regards the treatment of mentally ill persons.  First of all, there is going to be a new intake at the Police Training Academy in a short time, I don’t know exactly when they will go in but we will request and I will initiate conversations with the commissioner that mental health sensitivity training be an integral of this training for this intake and for every intake going forward.  To this end, it’s not something that is ad hoc.  There was a booklet that was developed about ten years ago, maybe, when Dr. Claudina Cayetano, a psychiatrist who was working at the Ministry of Health, they created a booklet for law enforcement to sensitize them to mental health issues and how to treat, how to respond to and how to understand the phenomenon of mental illness.  But that has fallen by the wayside, so we will push that with this upcoming intake of, I believe, a hundred and seventy new recruits, that mental health sensitivity training be an integral part of that.  So we will be liaising with the police department and with the Ministry of Health to push for that as urgently as possible because I know the training is imminent.  Second, we want to push for an acute mental health unit at the K.H.M.H.  This could be a small unit with only eight to ten beds but it is urgently needed.  We see it all the time in our society, we always report on cases with mentally ill persons and they are acting out in aggressive ways or may end up in hostile situations because there is no means of treatment for persons in an acute state.”