Emergency help for mentally ill

• NHF joins with upliftment committee to acquire response unit

THE COMMITTEE for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI) in collaboration with the National Health Fund (NHF) has announced plans to purchase a psychiatric emergency response unit for use by the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in St James.

The bus, which will be converted into a semi-ambulance, is valued at J$3.5 million.

Funds for the vehicle were sourced by the CUMI Come Run planning committee and the NHF. The unit will be assigned to the hospital's psychiatric department, serving mentally ill patients within the county of Cornwall.

"The mental-health service is suffering, as there is no ambulance to take the mental-health officers to deliver services where needed. In the case of patients, they have to do without or make their own arrangements in emergencies," lamented nurse Joy Crooks, nurse administrator, CUMI, while speaking of the importance of this intervention.

With all five parishes in the county currently without a vehicle, the bus will serve St James, Hanover, Westmoreland, Trelawny and St Elizabeth. This situation has existed for the last two years.

Not enough

In the meantime, the CUMI nurse administrator admits that one unit serving five parishes is still not the ideal situation, but is the best that can be hoped for at this time.

"The CRH team has pledged that they will make every effort to respond to the calls from the parish of St James; however, the four other parishes will benefit, because they too are without a vehicle," she stated.

A veteran in the business of community mental-health care, particularly, in St James, nurse Crooks and the CUMI Come Run team has been calling for an ambulance to be assigned to the CRH, owing to the great need to assist the mentally ill and to remove violent persons of unsound mind from the streets in the parish.

"Whenever there is an emergency, only the mental-health officers have the legal right to respond, and if there is no vehicle, they cannot respond," said Crooks.

She noted that a number of the families with persons with mental illness have had to do without or make their own arrangements in emergencies.

Crooks also expressed concern about the lack of urgency, even while there has been such a critical need.

CUMI's contribution amounts to J$1 million, while the NHF has invested $2.5 million into the project. The vehicle for the mentally ill is one of many efforts by the CUMI Come Run planning committee, which will stage the 3rd annual FLOW CUMI Come Run 2011 10K Fun Run and 5K walk, on Saturday, October 1, at the Tryall Club in Hanover.