Dear Editor,

I read with a fair bit of shock the headline ‘Tufton hoping to end stigma with Bellevue name change’, published on October 13 in this newspaper, which prompted me to read the article in its entirety hoping to discover that the minister had been misquoted or taken out of context.

No one, least of all the person with responsibility for health policy, should believe that a simple name change of an institution would cause the deep-seated, primitive responses of our people to individuals with mental illness to disappear.

That will only happen with continuing mental health education. Children need to be taught from early that it happens and that taking care of one’s mental health is simply a part of taking care of one’s general health. Mothers in pre- and post-natal care programmes need to be taught what to do if their child becomes mentally ill. Teachers need to be able to identify at-risk students and take action through a structured programme. A name change will not do it!

To that end, a system which treats mentally ill people pretty much as they have been treated since biblical times needs to be completely overhauled. If the Government sets the tone as to how mentally ill patients are to be treated, the population will follow.

To that end, perhaps the Ministry of Health could:

• Investigate and approve new medications which make it easier for patients to be compliant in taking their medicine

• Encourage more people to become psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, and psychiatric social workers by funding education for these people and bonding them to work in our mental health system.

• Increase the treatment available islandwide so that the number of people being admitted to Bellevue in full psychosis is substantially reduced.

• Provide halfway houses/assisted living facilities so that mentally ill patients can live reasonably independent lives where they are cared for and supported.

In short, treat the mentally ill with the respect that is the right of every Jamaican then perhaps the population’s negative perception of mental illness would be changed to encourage protection and care instead of the apathy (at best) and outright hostility (at worst) currently faced by our mentally ill brothers and sisters.

Changing the name of Bellevue would be akin to treating a bleeding artery with a Band-Aid. It will not be effective, and, in any event, it is not necessary.

Let us, instead, create a policy that allows people living with mental illness to live dignified lives and contribute to the development of Jamaica to the best of their ability.

Lydia Mair

LMAIRMS365@outlook.com