Recent deadly incidents involving mentally ill people linked to COVID crisis - Professor Abel

 

Professor Wendel Abel, head of the Department of Community Health and Psychiatry at the University of the West Indies, Mona, has linked recent deadly incidents involving mentally ill people to the mental health crisis Jamaica is facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The latest incident occurred on Saturday in St. Ann when a man was beheaded and his attacker, who was of unsound mind, was later killed by the police.

 

Professor Abel says he has noticed an increase in reports of aggression displayed by mentally ill people over the last nineteen months.

 

He says avenues of treatment have been disrupted as resources have been diverted toward fighting the pandemic. 

 

"And in some areas you find that, because of the need for isolation of persons and the COVID protocols, there may be a reduction in the number of mental health beds. And therefore, some of this is really, in a sense, unfortunately unavoidable," he admitted. 

 

Professor Abel said successive governments have placed priority on mental health, however resources continue to hamper the response.

 

He has recommended shifting resources to crisis services and community care. 

 

"One way to achieve that is to redirect resources from the mental hospital," he suggested, noting that "we have a mental hospital with just about 600 persons with a horrendous budget." 

 

He also reiterated the need for improvement in the training of the police to interact with the mentally ill.

 

 

Joy Crooks, a nurse administrator at the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill, said it appears that the killing of the mentally ill has become a strategy of the police to deal with the cases. 

 

"I've had relatives and I tell them to call the police and the mental health officer. They said they're not calling the police because the police tell them seh if they come, they may not like the action they have to take. When you take out somebody, that's the total solution. So it would appear that is the part that we are now venturing down," she lamented.