Rockview Psychiatric Hospital gets new dining room
A group of community minded people earlier this week traveled up the Western Highway, but their journey was not specifically to check out the beauty of the countryside. When members of the Belize City Hospital Auxiliary stopped in at Rockview, it was to celebrate an important milestone in the history of the local psychiatric institution.
Since the Rockview Hospital was relocated to its present site, twenty miles on the Western highway, the institution has undergone many changes in its infrastructure. The institution was transferred on June third, 1979 after the movie “Dogs of War” used the hospital’s former site Seaview. Among the staff, who were moved, was Leonard Mortis, Sr. Mortis is the supervisor for Rockview Hospital.
Leonard Mortis, Sr., Supervisor, Rockview
“It was lovely, oh beautiful. It was well painted, all the trees… oh bearing. It was really nice when we first came up here.”
But gradually the institution began falling apart. Years of neglect forced patients to sleep in quarters with leaky roof and broken windows. Both staff and patient morale was at its lowest. Then four years ago, thanks to organizations like the Belize City Hospital Auxiliary, hope sprung alive for Rockview.
Alma Erskine, P.R., Belize City Hospital Auxiliary
“Over the years, we have been doing a lot of things. Some years a back, I can remember we have been helping with providing mattresses for the bed and beds as well. And as the years went by, we saw the need to give more help to the patients here. At one time we had equip the kitchen and then sometime last year, we have provided… we had two out toilets built for the patients – one set for the females and one for the males. And we’ve also built a walkway.”
The Auxiliary in its continued commitment to the institution, held a special ceremony Tuesday afternoon to officially hand over the newly renovated patient’s dining room.
Leonard Mortis
“Oh it was in a bad state, I must say. We receive some paintings from the British Forces about six years a back and you know they always got these dead army color, you know. It was rough, but what can you do. The floor was terrible, we didn’t have a sink for the patients to wash up but now its beautiful.”
The renovations, which included a new tiled food counter, kitchen sink and plumbing, new fans and lights, tables and benches, cost the auxiliary over five thousand dollars.
Magaret Bradley, Psychiatric Nurse, Rockview
“It’s like a home away from home and if these people are up here with nobody to love and nobody to care and the place is deplorable, then they won’t get better, they will get worse. But if they go into a nice dining, nice facilities, they will uplift their morale and they will get better. It will give them a chance and a will to go forward, not backward.”
According to Magaret Bradley who has been the institution’s Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner for the past seven years, there are many more reasons why the staff is feeling much more optimistic about their workplace.
Margaret Bradley
“For 1998, it is quite fruitful. We have the staff dining that was closed up for almost seven years and it has been opened in March. We purchased things, we had it renovated. That was done by the Ministry of Health. Then now we have the patients’ dining, then the next one is the occupational therapy and we have a nurse who was trained in occupational therapy for three months.”
Presently there are fifty two patients at the Rockview Hospital. The youngest is fifteen years old, while the most senior patient is eighty five years old.
Members of the Belize City Hospital Auxiliary say they plan on continuing to do their part in helping to improve conditions at Rockview.
