Helplessness, condemnation and instability plague the lives of several mentally ill people in Montego Bay.

Many of them, however, have got a new lease on life, thanks to the work of the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI).

“If it wasn’t for CUMI, I don’t know what I’d be doing today. I probably would have killed myself,” said Luke McKenzie.

McKenzie, who originally hails from Westmoreland, was among a group of homeless people in Sam Sharpe Square who were picked up off the street and taken to CUMI in 1996.

McKenzie related how the home he had built while working at a hotel in Montego Bay was sold by his nephew after he became ill. He later turned to the streets with nothing but the clothes on his back.

Fast-forward a decade later, McKenzie is earning a living by cooking for the dozens of other people like himself who visit the Brandon Hill-based facility for support.

“CUMI rescued me,” he said. “Now I have the job as the cook up here and I’ve built a one-bedroom house for myself in Rosemount.”

The committee facilitates a feeding programme and counselling for mentally challenged people in the parish.

CUMI has been a source of strength, McKenzie said.

Another patient, Winston Irving, agreed.

“Even though I get myself together and I’m taking my medication, I still go up there and I receive counselling to help me stay on track,” he said.

Irving explained that, at CUMI, he isn’t ostracised and is treated with respect.

“The regular people in society, they just class me as mad and think I have no feelings and abuse me. But at CUMI, Nurse Crooks and the others know how to talk to us and let us feel like we belong,” he said, “They are very loving.”

CUMI was formed in 1991 by a group of concerned citizens, spearheaded by then Mayor Arthur Gilchrist, Elizabeth Hall, Joy Crooks, the St James mental health officer and mental health social worker, with the other service club and business people.

The day centre started a feeding programme, which serves the homeless people who can be found in the vicinity of the Number One Post Office.

“Mental health is thought of as the poor cousin in medicine, and what people fail to understand is that there cannot be any good health without good mental health,” said Crooks. “Everything that we are able to offer at CUMI, we do so from the generous donations of persons and volunteers who work tirelessly to help those who are afflicted, and to be able to rehabilitate them into society. Since our inception, we have helped close to 8,000 persons and many of them are now living normal productive lives.”

Paula Johnson, whose nephew Craig has benefited from CUMI, also had high praises for the organisation.

She said Craig was able to cope with the death of his parents while dealing with his own mental illness that he developed as a teen.

“His mum had initially brought him to CUMI for help, where he would get treatment and counselling. She died in 2004 and he was so devastated. I think that if it wasn’t for them talking to him and giving him a sense of purpose when he went up there, his condition would have worsened,” she explained.

Craig, she said, walks to Brandon Hill from Mount Salem every day, takes his medication, and even has the responsibly to collect bread from a bakery in town.

“This (picking up the bread) he dutifully does along with washing the dishes at the centre,” Johnson said.

CUMI isn’t just helping the mentally ill, it’s supporting their families, according to Janet Stone, whose 64-year-old mother, Phyliss Owen, has been participating in the programmes spearheaded by CUMI.

Stone said she sought help from other agencies in the parish, but no one was able to give her adequate support for her mother.

“I was confused and grew tired as my mother was being very stubborn and wouldn’t take her medication or even acknowledge that she was ill,” Stone said.

“CUMI provided counselling to me, they helped me cope and understand my mother’s behavioural problem,” she added.

The support from CUMI influenced Stone to further her education in social work, for which she holds a bachelor’s degree from Northern Caribbean University and certification from the University of the West Indies.

“CUMI didn’t just help my mum, it helped me,” she said. “At one stage I felt as if I would leave her and run away.”

Stone said, since going to CUMI, her mother is able to communicate with people and does not skip her medication. CUMI was even able to help Owen acquire a birth certificate and Tax Registration Number.

“Mummy loves them (CUMI); she especially loves the parties and games they have up there,” Stone said, adding that if she gets impatient, her mum tells her what Nurse Crooks does to care for her.

“If Nurse Crooks give her a present, it means the world to her. Nothing anyone gives her compares,” Stone said laughing.

“I need CUMI to get all the help they need so they can continue supporting families as they have done with mine,” Stone said.