GOVERNMENT senator, consultant psychiatrist Dr Saphire Longmore has cautioned Jamaicans caring for people with mental health challenges against waiting until medications run out before seeking refills.

Noting that “one of the significant challenges in direct mental health care is the availability of medications”, Longmore, who was making her contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate on Friday, said this was one fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I just want to use this opportunity to say to persons who are caring for individuals with mental health conditions, please don’t wait until the medication runs out. The consequences of someone relapsing is significantly more severe if the person is out of medication,” said Longmore.

“You may think they are well, no, touch base with a health centre, touch base with a doctor and find out. There can be a substitute that is given. We recognise the situation, but please, if we have persons who are responsive and caring for the individual, the consequences can be significantly less,” the mental health professional urged.

She, in the meantime, insisted that “mental health care has always been that forgotten child in health care” with “a significant disconnect between the needs and the resources”.

“There is a significant issue around acceptance of mental health care,” Longmore said further as she noted that a major part of the mental health budget for Jamaica goes to the Bellevue Hospital which now holds a majority of people whose families refuse to take them back.

“It was at one time over 3,000 patients, now it is just over 700, the significant majority of whom are persons who are abandoned by their families. This is the truth of what we are dealing with. It is not a matter of a lack of will, but the fact is that we are dealing with a situation where it can be costly to care, the consequences can be significant in terms of if someone is not healthy the damage that can be done,” Longmore stated.

In the meantime, she said Jamaica must pay attention to the mental health needs of children now or risk facing the consequences years from now.

“When you have a Caribbean Policy Research Institute [CaPRI, 2021] report relating that only eight per cent of the mental health needs of children are being met, you are going to have consequences down the road, that is the truth. What we need to do is seek to tailor solutions that can effectively address, en masse, some of these situations,” Longmore declared.

Longmore, who said she was asked specifically by noted psychiatrist Dr Earl Wright to underscore the importance of the first three years of the life of a child said, “This critical period plays an important role in shaping the outcomes, not just related to mental health issues but to public health, to societal issues, to the prevention of non-communicable diseases, to reducing violence.

“Consider the scaling up or early childhood stimulation and parenting programmes to reach the critical mass of the Jamaican population. I have multiple times spoken about the adverse childhood experiences [ACES], and I will also relate one positive influence in the life of a child who has the consequences of the ACES dealing with. That one positive influence…can turn around that child’s life,” Longmore schooled further.