I recently wrote about an incident in which a number of street people believed to be insane were abducted in the 90s from the city of Montego Bay and forcibly relocated — or should I say dumped — in another parish.

Since then, I have received communications from a number of people that reflect what I would call a significant misunderstanding of the reality of suffering endured by people with mental illnesses.

To assist you to better understand what it is like to be suffering from a mental illness, I will tell you about an incident that occurred in 2021 in Portmore, St Catherine. While on duty I was called to a scene where a police party was engaged in a shooting. The shooter had barricaded himself in a house. A police officer had been shot.

My purpose there was to conduct a high-risk entry with my team. Upon arrival I was told that the target of the operation was a mental patient and he had taken his family hostage in the house. My purpose then changed from high-risk entry operative to hostage negotiator. It was not a difficult transition for me. I am a certified hostage negotiator and had been for many years.

This particular negotiation was made much easier as his wife was able to assist us to talk him down and surrender. He was a licensed firearm holder and a former member of the military.

I escorted him to hospital, as he was also shot, and I guarded him in the initial hours after his shooting. I inquired of him after he was treated and given the appropriate medication for his mental illness.

I asked him how he felt about the damage he had done. He had not only shot a young police officer, but prior to that he had opened fire on his neighbour, which, in fact, was what resulted in the police intervention.

What he said gave me some perspective on mental illness that I perhaps did not quite understand before. He told me he didn’t see his neighbour, he saw a man with a rifle about to attack him from his gate so he fired first in an effort to protect himself and his family. When the police party turned up, what he saw was the man’s gang, who were all armed and planning to attack him and his household, so he fired again. He was, in reality, experiencing a psychosis. In plain English, he was seeing what was not there.

This is the world of many people suffering from mental illnesses. They see stuff that is not there, and it is not pleasant. I agree, they are scary. I agree, they are dangerous. I agree, the first thing we need to do is protect ourselves from them or any threat that we have to face. But we have to be cognisant that we are not in combat with bad people, we are in combat with sick people.

They didn’t make themselves sick. A mental health condition is an illness just like kidney disease or diabetes. Like all diseases it puts you in a world where you would rather not be. The issue with mental illness is that it often results in you being in that world alone. It is the exclusion they experience that often makes their condition less tolerable, lonelier, and much harder to treat.

The psychotics are not the only people who have their unique hell. I have spoken to people who have experienced a nervous breakdown who hear voices even when they are asleep. The voices never stop. The voices are never telling them nice things, the voices are never telling them to do things that are good for them. It is not demons talking to them, it is simply a manifestation of their illness.

Think about that for a moment, a voice in your head that never stops. Picture living with that and then being scorned, people avoiding having conversations with you. You will be there in a group but no one engages with you or encourages your participation.

About two years ago I was in a shooting incident which resulted in damage to my right eardrum. It created a whistling sound, well more like a ringing. This ringing never stopped, it lasted for six weeks, and sometimes if I closed my eyes I still heard it, but I knew it was my imagination. This may sound ridiculous, but it was unimaginably difficult. I can just imagine what someone who is hearing voices goes through for years.

Now back to the psychotic. It is important you understand that oftentimes they are not seeing what you see when they are stoning innocent people. In their head they may be repelling an attack. It is not them being “bad”.

Our approach has to be different because we are defending ourselves from sick people, not evil people. And I totally acknowledge how dangerous they can be. The recent murder of a woman by an insane man in Portmore is fresh in my mind. The defence of ourselves and the weak is paramount, but we cannot approach the problem in a vacuum.

Exclusion, cynicism, neglect and scorn will only make the problem worse. Some years ago I worked with a detective who suffered from a form of mental illness. He developed it in his late 30s. I literally watched him deteriorate. It started with him not taking his medication. Why? Because it turned him into a ‘zombie’! The medication in those days were horrible.

Then there was the exclusion, the scorn, and the culture of mocking. One of the most important factors is first accepting that this person is ill, and that he didn’t make himself ill. His behaviour is simply a manifestation of the illness. His behaviour does not define him. The social dynamics that define us also define him. As we desire acceptance, admiration, and adoration, so does he. Most times his illness can be controlled. We are often the contributing factor to it becoming worse.

Our medical services need to do more.

There have been improvements in public information since Camille Buchanan took over the role as CEO of Bellevue Hospital. However, more resources need to be given to her if we are to truly impact the presence of mentally ill people on our streets, looking dirty and dangerous. Then there has to be the requisite infrastructure to have them removed to the hospital, and to be treated until they are cured.

Law enforcement is significantly more trained than they used to be in dealing with mentally ill people. More training is needed. The country needs to be sensitised to look on them as ill people, and less like criminals.

There is an African proverb: ”A child not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.”

I wonder if this is playing out because of how we treat our mentally ill from they are old enough to need the embrace of the village, and conscious enough to feel its scorn.

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