- Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer
Directors, Hirfa Anderson and Rae Wilson, speak with 'Oney', a resident at the Clarendon Street People Association (CLASP) facility on Thursday.
Glenda Anderson, Staff Reporter
DIRECTORS OF the Clarendon Street People Association (CLASP) have lashed out at the parish authorities charging that the facility which provides assistance for several mentally ill street persons is being neglected.
They say that although they are entitled to Government assistance in the form of relief, none is given.
"The people take their relatives here with the belief that they will be taken care of by the Government, but they are not. The organisation has to meet every need itself. Sometimes this is out of our own pockets," Finance Director Rainford Samuels said.
At present, there are 13 mentally ill homeless persons in the facility which is run by 15 local and overseas-based directors. The centre has no porters or janitors so clients are physically monitored and assisted by one of two resident directors.
"I have seen persons just dropped off here from wherever in just their blue or green pyjamas, barefoot and that's it. Nothing in the way of assistance is provided, no allowance, nothing. Some persons just leave their relatives here and never come back, never send anything to help to care for them. Other persons come to us from the hospitals, referrals come from institutions, the prisons and we get nothing to care for them yet they keep sending them," Hirfa Anderson, director at the centre said.
NO RECOGNITION
Ivan Barrow and Gladstone Ledgister, two former inmates of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in Kingston, were recent residents at the CLASP centre. The administrators say to date no mention has been made of assistance or recognition of the centre's needs.
"We are in dire need of help, our situation is very bad," Ms. Anderson says.
The centre has a monthly bill of over $25,000, but food they say is their most pressing need.
"If we get by for one month, the next month is shaky. We take from our pockets to meet every need, and the needs are great," she said.
But according to Inspector of Poor for the parish, Patricia Anderson, while the facility's clients would have qualified for relief as mentally ill destitute persons, they did not receive assistance as they were already within a private institution.
"We do have responsibility for them as street persons because in our annual report we have to indicate how many persons there are in shelters or on the streets, and make provision for them," she said.
Regarding relief to the shelter however, Ms. Anderson said this had never been done.
"I have never heard of it being done. That is something we'd have to discuss with the secretary manager (of the Parish Council)."
Under the Poor Relief Act, (1886) persons entitled to relief in any parish are those who are "wholly destitute of the means of subsistence and are at the same time from mental or physical causes, unable to work and earn the means of subsistence."
The Act also states that the Inspector of Poor for each parish has the responsibility to "keep a record of all persons receiving poor relief, visit and inspect personally at least twice in each year at his place of residence every person receiving relief, and to report to the Parish Council and Board of Supervision all matters relating to the management of the poor."
Each homeless person (out of shelter) is paid a dole of $240 every 28 days, while persons in the parish's infirmary are the responsibility of the state.
Clarendon has 76 street persons on record with another 1,143 registered in shelters.
Resident Director Rae Wilson said the centre is monitored by local health officials, but funding has been the sole responsibility of the CLASP members.
"The Southern Regional Authority provides a psychiatrist and Mental Health Officers to evaluate, medicate and counsel clients at the centre, while an internal Clinical Committee is headed by a nurse practitioner.
"Clarendon Parish Council provides building and lands. Good samaritans, primarily Food for the Poor and the churches, provide food. It should be noted however, that solicitations are carried out by volunteers who walk the streets daily, and also by phone contacts, walk-a-thons, and concerts."
When The Sunday Gleaner visited the home on Thursday two elderly clients sat in an almost empty room except for three chairs and a defective television.
DISCOLOURED MATTRESSES
The recreation area had a narrow wooden bench, and a few chairs with tattered upholstered seats. In the sleeping area a few young men sat or slept on worn, discoloured mattresses. Directors say a leaky roof makes one large room uninhabitable.
In the bathroom, small white kegs collect water for baths in the bathtub with its peeling paint and broken wall tiles. The lids and handles were broken off both toilet bowls.
Mr. Samuels says that although the centre receives some donations it was not consistent enough to provide the care the clients need.
"There are so many things we need. We have no machine to do laundry so all the washing is done by volunteers and those of the clients who are well enough. We have no proper kitchen to prepare meals, and no vehicle to do any transportation at all. If we need to move around we take taxis, or get help from kind persons who help from time to time.
"We need the assistance of the Government, community and the persons responsible, they must be held accountable," Mr. Samuels said.
In contrast, one other facility in Montego Bay, the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI), says conditions are not as dire.
"While we would welcome funds we are not desperate, we are managing," CUMI chairperson Elizabeth Hall said. "At the moment we are operating at about 60 per cent of our capacity, and now we're actively working with other agencies like City Spirit, Inspector of Poor, and the hospital to see how we can network with each other to make the system work."
A night shelter formerly operated by the facility was handed over to the City Spirit Foundation, (a Parish Council-funded outreach programme for homeless persons in Montego Bay) in April of this year.
She said this move has freed the centre to provide more care.
"We're now able to provide better care, and are now able to do lots of other things, like helping persons to access state help, and helping to get work for rehabilitated persons."
