Hospital Auxilliary makes improvements at Rockview
They do various projects all over Belize, but the Rockview Psychiatric Facility has a special place in their hearts. Today the Belize Hospital Auxilliary unveiled their latest project. News Five was there.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Improving the physical layout of the Rockview Hospital has been a goal set by the hospital administration for some time. Today, they made a giant step towards that goal by opening their new Occupational Therapy Center. According to Occupational Therapist Rachel Bull, the activities now available to the patients are essential to their mental and physical health.
Rachel Bull, Occupational Therapist
“The activity itself can be therapeutic. It can help improve concentration. It can help people develop skills that they’ve lost when they’ve been sick. It can help people improve their self-esteem to be producing something. Which is why it’s so important to have this unit because we haven’t been able to do any productive activities like cooking or craft.”
It was the hard work of the Hospital Auxilliary that made this center a reality. They visit the hospital regularly to give the patients companionship and saw the need for the center.
Magda Burgos, Liaison Officer, Hospital Auxiliary
“They are out here, hardly seeing anybody, I mean they don’t get a lot of visitors. They look forward to having us come and visit with them and having a party with them. They enjoy it very much.”
“The existing structure on the outside was there but the inside was completely dilapidated. It had, the ceiling had fallen through, it was eaten by termites, the windows, the roof, so was practically only the four walls still standing. It had no railings. The counters were torn and broken down. And we decided to renovate it and we spent $13,000 doing it.”
Administrator for the facility, Augustina Elijio says the patients will be able to enjoy other activities in the near future.
Augustina Elijio, Administrator, Rockview Hospital
“One of the things we will be focusing on shortly will be horticulture where we will be having little gardens. The Hospital Auxilliary again has promised to help us lift that project off the ground. So we will be getting garden stuff like hoes and forks and buckets and what not to get this project into a reality.”
But while the hospital itself and organizations like the Hospital Auxilliary make special efforts to make a difference in the lives of these people, Elijio says there’s nothing like the human touch. She encourages relatives to visit their loved ones as often as possible. And for the 53 patients who call Rockview Hospital “home,” that home could use a lot of work. Elijio is appealing to other organizations to lend a helping hand to continue to improve the hospital.
Augustina Elijio
“I would like to plead to the public at large, that yes it is a government institution, but if we could have other government institutions, if we could have other NGO organizations, other churches, other relatives being a part of the same organization or contributing to it, it could make a big difference to the patients as well as the community in which we live.”
The staff and patients of the Rockview Hospital would like to thank the Hospital Auxilliary for all their hard work and the businesses, private citizens, and the community at large, who assisted along the way. The Volunteer Services Organization (VSO) has given the hospital a grant to provide additional programs for the patients.
