RJRGLEANER Honour Awards | For health and wellness (special award): Dr Wendel Abel – Driven to help the mental health for all Jamaicans

Accomplished Professor of Psychiatry, Dr Wendel Dwight Abel, could easily have been a farmer producing foods for the local and international markets, and possibly opening new frontiers in manufacturing. But fate intervened when he was a teenager and sealed his career path to becoming a medical doctor with a specialisation in psychiatry.

Professor Abel is head of Community Health and Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medical Sciences. He received his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona; certificate from Johns Hopkins University; diploma from UWI, Mona; Doctor of Medicine from UWI, Mona; and Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.

Despite his chosen career path, Abel has been creating gardens of beauty, with plants of all variety and colours that he and his patients enjoy at Ferdie's House - his adult day-care facility for patients with mental-health challenges.

The Wolmerian is unassuming for the most part and could fit in any crowd, anywhere in Jamaica, and especially in rural Jamaica, where he was born in the sublime climes of Walderston, in northern Manchester.

But when Abel begins to speak about mental health, there is no doubt he is an authority on the area. And this year the celebrated mental health professional is a special award recipient of the RJRGLEANER Honour Award for his continuous research on mental health in Jamaica and its usefulness in treating psychological issues affecting Jamaicans.

"This RJRGLEANER Honour Award means a lot to me because it is in recognition of the work that one has done. And I have always maintained that the work we do on Earth is the rent we pay to actually occupy space on this planet.

"It's, therefore, good to be recognised and to be rewarded for the work that we do," said Abel during an interview with The Gleaner at Ferdie's House on Old Hope Road.

Abel was taken to Kingston as an infant by his parents and attended Duhaney Park Primary School before moving on to Wolmer's Boys' School.

He credits much of his achievements to the influence of "great teachers" at both institutions, who played a critical role in his intellectual, moral, social and personal development.

"And then, of course, Wolmer's was a special high school," he said in a tone which said it was not up for discussion.

The Hubert Humphrey Scholar, prolific researcher and lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry, also holds a master's degree in public health. A strong proponent of community mental health, he believes institutions like the Bellevue Hospital, the island's only residential mental health facility, is necessary, but he does not believe the purpose for which it was established is currently been realised.

Abel anchored his views on findings which showed that a significant number of the patients now housed at the institution have been abandoned by families. Successive governments have struggled for years with how to deal with the hundreds of Bellevue patients who are aged and abandoned.

 

Effective mental health care

 

According to Abel, many of the patients in the mental hospital would do much better in communities, receiving the love and care of families.

"I got solid training in psychiatry from The UWI (University of the West Indies) on how to take care of persons who are mentally ill. But the public-health aspect also prepared me for working in the community, which I think has been an important part of my work. I really enjoy working within the communities to get hands-on approach to doing what I have done," he told The Gleaner.

With more than three decades of practice under his belt, Abel is convinced that mental health care treatment has come a far way in Jamaica.

"I have seen significant shift in terms of attitude towards the mentally ill and mental health care treatment. There is less stigma but not withstanding, the reality is that we still have a long way to go. In terms of resources, we are an under-resourced country. But the ministry has placed mental care as part of their priority," said Abel.

He pointed to the gains in the treatment of mentally ill persons in Jamaica, including the fact that they can now access care in any hospital islandwide, and through the National Health Fund, they can access medication free of cost.

Abel listed some of the challenges, including too many mentally ill persons on the streets, walking nude and eating from garbage bins.

 

Distribution of professionals

 

He argued that children and adolescents with mental health challenges are among those crying out for attention and expressed regret that the number of mental health care professionals are not more equally distributed across the island, and not so heavily concentrated in the Corporate Area and St Catherine.

"Trauma in terms of violence and trauma in terms of sexual violence impacts heavily on our children. There is a relatively high level of exposure to sexual trauma, and the physical scars can heal but it's the psychological ones that take a long time to heal, if ever at all.

"Out of this concern, one would like to see more services available to children and adolescents," declared Abel, who said if he wasn't in his current field, he would have been a PhD in something plant-related.

"Possibly you know. And I was actually thinking about it. But something related to farming or gardening, because I really do get a lot of happiness doing gardening, which is one of my main hobbies.

"I find that nature provides a certain amount of happiness, personal fulfilment and, for me, therapy, and in fact, it can be therapeutic for many persons. So this would perhaps have been a space to which I would have retreated full-time," he stated.

The greenery of Ferdie's House is testament to his love of plants, and the peace he finds in space shared with plants. The facility is surrounded by several varieties of flowering and non-flowering plants, green and coloured leaves, and could be called Ferdie's greenhouse.

And seeing the fruits of his work impact positively on the lives of persons he has been able to help has given him satisfaction beyond words.

"Because I have the opportunity to live in this place called Jamaica, to share in the joys of actually seeing people benefit from my contribution has been very rewarding. It has certainly provided personal happiness, fulfilment and joy. So it's really been a joy and an honour to have this opportunity to serve the country and people here," said Abel, who is clear in his vision for Jamaica.

"My vision for this country, that I love dearly, is that it becomes a place that we are all proud of to live, to work, to retire, and certainly to enjoy excellent health, including mental health. If we all have good mental health, it means that we are all going to be happy, well adjusted and that we will find comfort and joy living in this place and space called Jamaica," said Abel.