Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter
Joy Crooks, nurse administrator at the Community Upliftment for the Mentally Ill (CUMI) based in Montego Bay, takes time out of her busy schedule to speak with The Gleaner. She had always wanted to help people, so much so, that when her family migrated to England in the late 1950s she took her dream of becoming a nurse with her.
WESTERN BUREAU:
Standing just over five feet tall, sporting wire rimmed eyeglasses, and an Afro with strands of grey hair, Joy Crooks is a godsend for the mentally challenged living in western Jamaica.
A general and psychiatric nurse for more than 30 years, Mrs. Crooks says the most rewarding thing is being able to help others.
"Being a nurse is the most rewarding thing I have done in my life, particularly the psychiatric aspect, because you deal with the holistic person and once you can fix the mind you can fix the body - it is truly satisfying," she says.
"To see them coming from being on the street as insane, drinking sewer water, eating out of the garbage and into the programme. To help them regain their sanity and the dignity of being a human being - returning to society some as productive individuals and taking up their responsibility in life is what keeps me going," she tells The Gleaner.
Helping the challenged
The nurse administrator, who is one of the founding members of the Montego Bay-based Community for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI), Mrs. Crooks and her team have helped countless mentally-challenged persons, some deemed unable to get well, reintegrate into society.
CUMI was also instrumental in bringing public attention to the forced removal of the mentally- challenged persons from the streets of the second city, in what became known as the street people scandal of the late 1990s. In that incident eight years ago, more than 20 persons living on the streets of Montego Bay were rounded up by public agencies and dumped miles away in St. Elizabeth. There was much public outcry over the incident no one was held criminally liable.
But just what keeps Mrs. Crooks, who is fondly called Nurse Crooks going? She explains: "Some (of the mentallychallenged) have found their families that they have been disconnected from for years and hold down employment which they have never done before. Some people who have been in and out of institutions such as Bellevue, Cornwall Regional Hospital and various other hospitals, have been able to keep well and stay out of institutions for months, even years."
A daughter of Montego Bay, and one of seven children bornto Dorothy and Archibald 'Tarzan' Morgan on October 10, 1953, Mrs. Crooks has always wanted to help people, so much so, that when her family migrated to England in the late 1950s she took her dream of becoming a nurse with her.
While there, she completed studies at various institutions including the Nottingham University School of Nursing, and St. Luke's Psychiatric Hospital in Muswell Hill, North London, formerly the St. Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, before returning to Jamaica with her husband in the late 1980s.
It was during her first year back that she was introduced to Elizabeth Hall (now deceased) and other citizens who were concerned about the mentally ill.
Origin of the programme
"I worked for GARMEX in the HEART programme as a counsellor for the young ladies who were preparing to go to work in the freezones. At the time, because they (the concerned citizens) were aware of my qualifications, I was asked to help put together a programme in which we could assist the people on the street," Mrs. Crooks reveals.
"When I saw the enthusiasm they had, I thought that the least I could do was offer my knowledge and help. I decided to terminate working with GARMEX and spent a year with the concerned citizens meeting as a group and researching how we could provide the services that we are providing today."
In 1990 CUMI was formed, and in 1991, the group opened its day centre on Rectory Drive in Brandon Hill, Montego Bay. Since then, the organisation has helped some 1,800 mentally challenged persons.
It has also lobbied, and continues to lobby, for the improvement of the mental care facilities in the region.
LOBBY GOVERNMENT
Left: Joy Crooks in a counselling session with Luke 'Lukey' McKenzie, one of the more than 1,800 persons to pass through the programme. Mr. McKenzie, who lived on the street for seven years, has since been able to work and assist his son finish school. Right: Nurse administrator for CUMI, Joy Crooks (left), discusses dressmaking tips with Margaret Fletcher 'Ms. Sarah', one of the persons who was forcibly removed and dumped in St. Elizabeth in the street people scandal. Ms. Fletcher lives in a private facility from funds gained through the commission of inquiry into the incident. She visits CUMI where she assists by adjusting garments for its female clients. Also in the photo is deaf mute, Winston Jones unable to communicate with words or sign language, Jones, a day client who lives with his mother, has improved tremendously to the extent that he can take a taxi by himself and greet guests to the facility with a smile and nod of 'hello'. - photos by Claudine Housen photo
"As a group, we have lobbied the government to get a permanent psychiatrist in the department of psychiatry at Cornwall Regional in 1991. We have also lobbied to get an increase in the number of mental health officers and mental health aides working on the team," she says.
"We have also been the platform from which other service clubs have been able to come in and work to improve mental health provisions in St. James. Also, since CUMI, others such as the Westmoreland Street People Association (WASP), have started their own services."
Between Monday and Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the CUMI day programme addresses rehabilitation in life-coping skills, management of mental illness, such as, how to identify signs and symptoms of the illness, counselling and psychological intervention. It also has a children's programme to assist the offsprings of the mentally ill.
"We are particularly proud of one young girl, who, at 14 years old, was able to sit four Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams," Mrs. Crooks noted.
"This year, we have also had two of our children pass the grade six achievement test at the level where they got into their (school) first choice. My driving spirit is just being a part of the whole picture."
CUMI is run by a board of directors, has a day staff of about five persons and assists between 17 and 25 persons daily.
claudine.housen@gleanerjm.com
