THE MINISTRY of Health says that health care workers at the Bellevue Hospital will not be fired in the process of phasing out the mental institution over the next five years.
According to the Ministry's public relations manager, Shermaine Robotham-White, there is a shortage of mental health professionals and plans will have to be developed on what to do with the staff.
Her reaction was prompted by a letter from the Jamaica Workers Union (JWU) last week to Minister of Health, John Junor, requesting an urgent meeting to discuss Bellevue's fate.
The union asked about the fate of the workers, which it represents, and stressed the hospital's importance to the society "as it is the only hospital in Jamaica dedicated solely to the care and treatment of mentally ill people who could not otherwise afford treatment."
Mrs. Robotham-White said the Govern-ment will develop plans to determine what will happen to the different levels of staff, out-patients and residents at Bellevue.
The population ranges from persons who have been abandoned by relatives at the institution and patients who need minimal supervision to acute patients and those who need constant supervision.
She said that while the Government had not yet decided the exact location of wards for acute psychotic patients, it has determined that the wards will be placed within a general public hospital setting, in a manner similar to that done at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and the Cornwall Regional Hospital.
Minister Junor said last week that the institution will be phased out as part of the effort to reform the health sector and mental health services through a comprehensive five-year strategy plan developed and approved in 2002.
Under this plan, the Minister said that psychiatrists and mental health officers will treat patients in their homes and communities, because those environments are less confining and have been shown to facilitate better health outcomes.
He said that the Health Ministry is undertaking a $5 million public health education programme, which is aimed at promoting community health care by developing mental health in public hospitals and reducing the stigma related to mental illness.
The five-year plan also includes developing partnerships with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the phasing out of the kind of institutional care offered by the 140-year-old Bellevue Hospital.
The Minister said that there are proposals being developed to ensure that the needs of the various groups of long-stay and chronically ill geriatric patients residing at Bellevue are also adequately met.
The Bellevue Hospital serves Kingston and St. Andrew and St. Catherine and has an average length of stay of 30 days for males and 20 days for females.
He said the four regional health authorities will have emergency psychiatric teams that will ensure that there are follow-ups and the patients are kept on medication.
He said that these teams will respond to crisis calls and visit patients who are resistant to treatment, as well as treat homeless persons who are mentally ill.
In addition, the programme is to receive a boost with the gift of five ambulances from the Health Support Fund. He said that two of the ambulances will be assigned to the South East Regional Health Authority and one each for the other regions.
