WESTERN BUREAU: Dysfunctional families, and individuals finding it difficult to deal with the stresses of everyday life now have the option of seeking help at Montego Bay’s newly opened Family and Parenting Centre.

The driving force behind the facility is local social worker and minister, Dr Beverley Scott.

“It is a centre to deal with the problems of dysfunctional families. We are here to improve their social functioning,” Scott, who is the executive director of the centre, told the Observer.

“Oftentimes, it is only when individuals commit suicide and domestic murders that most of us are made aware of the serious dysfunction in some families.”

Opened initially in early October, the centre offers counselling in stress management, parenting step-children, motherhood and mothering, fatherhood and fathering, conflict prevention and resolution, addiction reversion, understanding sexuality, fundamentals of good parenting and drug abuse.

Since they opened their doors, Scott said, they have treated some 40 cases. Their first case, in which they helped a family of four, took place two hours after the centre opened.

Scott maintained that too often, patients had been given treatment for physical symptoms to psychological problems.

“Many doctors do not have the time to counsel their patients and sometimes patients need counselling more than they need medicine,” she said.

To complement the operations of the centre, a programme billed “Restoring the Family” is aired on the community channel from Mondays through to Thursdays between the hours of 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm. And, Scott said, within another month the centre would be making literature available on a variety of subjects.

These will include parenting tips for young children, sexuality management, motherhood, fatherhood, guides for better sex life and functional families.

A social worker since 1979, Scott said she felt compelled to open the centre. The result was that although there were no investors, she used some $170,000 of her personal funds to start the centre.

“There was such a passion and urgency for me to open this place and I just went and opened the doors. There is such a need for this facility,” she said. “We have short falls in our expenses because I didn’t have enough money to invest. But I know that there are persons out there who know of the work that we are doing but I know that the lord will lay it on their heart to help with this important project.”