THE University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) has collaborated with the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), the Ministry of Health, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to embark on an “Impact Mission” geared at offering medical aid to people in areas most affected by Hurricane Melissa.

Senior medical doctor at UHWI Winston De La Haye, who heads the mission team, told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday that the project, which started last week, is ongoing and is planned to continue for another six months to a year.

“We recognised that the challenges we face will not disappear tomorrow — there are current needs and will continue to be. So while we are making our efforts at assisting, at the same time we are planning so we can have a sustained effort,” said De La Haye.

He added that the hospital’s effort is guided by regional directors and chief medical officers in the western parishes who advise them on the needs of the areas.

“We are not going out blindly. We couldn’t just leave here and go to a particular facility [so] we are in communication with the managers. They know their terrain so they determine and communicate and we facilitate through volunteerism, access to health care, which is our focus,” added De La Haye.

He noted that his team first visited the Savanna-la-Mar General Hospital to assist colleagues, and then Petersfield High School which is serving as a hurricane shelter.

De La Haye pointed out that the UHWI team comprises more than 45 people with different expertise, and visits hospitals as well as shelters.

“The Petersfield High School is a shelter with 190 persons, including women men and children, so we had a specific speciality outreach with obstetrician and paediatrician and that is where you see real time use of technology,” he said.

Pivoting to the mental health crisis that some storm victims are currently facing, De La Haye said the majority of people now seeking care for mental health challenges at Savanna-la-Mar General Hospital are staff members who were displaced.

“It turns out, of the 75 persons seen by the mental health team, 63 were staff. So these are persons who had significant loss in the hurricane; they are inundated with their own challenges at home plus having to work for continued periods of time, so they are pressured. Many are burnt out.

“We recognise, as it relates to mental health, some emotional stages of a disaster, and that includes what we are seeing now and coming out of — the heroic phase, which is the first two weeks, where adrenaline is pumping, everyone is super helpful, which we need. Then there is the honeymoon phase, after the two weeks, which lasts for two to three months; there is also other things that come into play there [during honeymoon phase] like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Then comes phase three, the disillusion phase, [for] three months and onwards where the freeness and support dries up — so the teams that came are now going back out and we are now left to fend for ourselves,” De La Haye said.While acknowledging the patient load at UHWI remains high, De La Haye told the Observer he is confident that with the correct strategy in place his team will be able to balance the workload at the hospital while providing adequate assistance for those mostly affected in the south-western end of the island.

“I think we need to be doing one of these outreach-type impact missions every two weeks or every week, if we can keep up. I have gone as far as making a recommendation where doctors in training — so these are persons who are physicians and had already done their internships and so on, and are now accepted in a postgraduate programme, whatever that maybe — part of the expectation is that they cover short stints in these facilities,” said De La Haye.