Dear Editor,

Once again, a Jamaican newspaper has delighted only to deceive. I felt very encouraged by what I thought was going to be a serious look at the largely under-reported issue of mental health illness in Jamaica, when several of your readers wrote about their own experiences, based on the case of the unfortunate Mr Horace Peterkin.

Instead, like so many other things in Jamaican media, it has become a nine-day wonder, giving way to the next headline story. Mr Editor, mental health illness is no nine-day wonder. Those who wrote to you were crying out for help. I had hoped that because Mr Peterkin was such a high-profile individual, being a former president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), the opportunity would have been better used to address the issue in a more meaningful way. Why does everybody want to push this issue under the carpet?

I am very willing to provide first-hand information to you, if you are interested in doing an in-depth series of articles on mental health problems. Our family here in Montego Bay has been very traumatised, often humiliated by the travails of two of our loved ones who have been diagnosed as bipolar and schizophrenic.

We made the mistake of having them released to us from the same Ward 21 where Mr Peterkin was admitted. Since then, they have refused to stay on medication and it is causing us more pain than I can describe.

I know it’s controversial to say this, but the Montego Bay community has not been good for mentally ill people. There are too many hypocrites who smile up with mentally ill persons to their faces but laugh at their antics behind their backs.

Many bipolar persons do not believe anything is wrong with them because they appear as sane as anyone else, until they act. I’m afraid to say there are people in this town who also exploit and use the mentally ill, as they are now doing with poor Mr Peterkin. I’m sure CUMI, which has tried its best, can testify to this practice.

Instead of trying to get help for Mr Peterkin, many of these people are deceiving him. One of my neighbours who used to be close to him receives e-mails that he (Mr Peterkin) sends out by the hundreds, sometimes threatening persons whom he believes to have wronged him. This is typical bipolar behaviour. The sad thing is that some of these people being threatened are the very ones trying to help. My family has lived through this and I can write the book. I have seen some of these e-mails. If you’ll allow me, I’ll share one of many examples with your readers:

“…By the way Merrick Fraid (presumably Merrick Fray), I got some calls from the little people in Flanker wondering how I am doing. I told them fine. I am not ready to use their help yet. I am saving it for the dessert. There is the appetiser, the salad, the MAIN COURSE. Now that’s going to be the beauty. Then the dessert will just finish tings off nicely. Hope you enjoy the menu… By the way, did I tell you that I have an army bigger than the Jamaica military and police force combined. They include the good, the bad and the ugly. They eat their dinner over dead bodies and joke about it. Guess what, I am having a hard time keeping them quiet. Because the good, some of whom work right inside Sandals, have figured out some of the s…t you guys have done to me and they have shared it with the bad and the ugly. I have begged them not to harm any of you but unfortunately, I cannot control them all. They know where you all live because they are connected to the maids and gardeners. Do what you have to do to protect yourselves. That’s all I have to say…”

Some of the other e-mails are just as threatening, including some that target the present president of the JHTA, Mr Wayne Cummings; Mr Lloyd B Smith, editor of the Western Mirror for not being a guest speaker at the launch of his book about how he turned up at work at Sandals in his underpants; and the media in Montego Bay for not turning up to cover that launch.

My point is that this is someone who needs help. We must think of his wife and children who I know are extremely traumatised. Shame on you folks who go to his (Tropical Sundays) functions to eat up his food, knowing that he should be using that money for his medication and treatment.

Sandra Jones-Williams

Albion, St James