Gov’t wrestling with issue of mentally challenged – Hon. Skelton
Hon. Skelton also expressed hopes that the current facility which houses the Adina Donovan Home for the Elderly will someday be transformed into an outfit that addresses the needs of mentally challenged persons in the Territory.
Responding to concerns raised by a resident who questioned what the government was doing about the mentally challenged population in the Virgin Islands, Hon. Skelton said during the NDP radio programme aired on October 7, 2013, that a Mental Health Policy for the VI was laid in the House of Assembly on the same day.
The resident alleged that he had recently seen a mentally challenged woman walking the streets of Road Town with visible signs of menstruation and was later told by tourists that they never expected to see something like this in the Virgin Islands. “That is so disgusting. What are we planning to do about our mentally challenged?” the resident asked.
“Although the people might have mental challenges, they have rights,” Hon. Skelton asserted while expressing that what is “good and right” must be done in good and bad times.
The Social Development Minister further explained that in the past, community based mental health initiatives were being focused on wherein persons were treated in their communities of origin.
“We think we have come to a point where we also need to institute a long term care facility where we could put these people,” Hon. Skelton stated, “this is why when we were building [the new elderly home at] Spooners, we were hoping to… be able to use that facility [Adina Donovan Home for the Elderly] to care for these people, give them a place where they could recover and then bring them back into the community.”
Hon. Skelton said this remained the plan, but announced that while awaiting the availability of this facility, “we have to basically move forward with some level of care some place where we can deal with these people.”
He further stated that a facility is currently being explored to provide this care and it was hoped that the landowner for the facility would grant permission to have this done.
According to the Minister, while six beds are currently allocated at the mental health ward of the Peebles Hospital for persons afflicted with serious mental health conditions, government has not placed the needs of the mentally challenged on the backburner.
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14 Responses to “Gov’t wrestling with issue of mentally challenged – Hon. Skelton”
The Minister is not into construction so would've had to depend on someone in that field for consultations on the costs, quantities etc. The problem is we like to push 'our own' even if it means to our detriment. If we had professional project managers and engineers with proper track records and prior experience to advise us on these things then it would go better. The man we had managing the project never even manage a clinic construction muchless a huge hospital undertaking. But alas, he's one of us so we had to give him a chance 'just because'. While I do think Hon Skel deserves some blame he cannot get all. We the people sit back and support, promote mediocrity all in the name of politics and emotional BS then we wonder why we suffer. Everything can't be local becaause many locals haven't been exposed to certain things or experienced. This shows. Look what it took for James Todman to finish. He's a very experienced contractor having built most, if not all of the huge buildings around here. He built Marias by himself, Ritter two buildings by himself, ask yourself why for the Hospital project he partnered with a US construction team. It's obvious! A Hospital isn't just a regular concrete box. There are many variables that have to be taken into consideration especially things like oxygen installation, medical lines etc. as people's lives would depend on it. So, cut the local bull$"£%T and get qualified people no matter where they're from. Once they're qualified and have a good track record we will benefit. We are to be blamed not politicians!!