MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The number of mentally ill people on the streets of Mandeville is on the increase. The Ebenezer Home, which normally cares for them, has run out of room, and the Manchester Health Department says it is unable to help.

Officials at the Ebenezer Home, the only organisation in central Jamaica which provides semi-permanent accommodation for mentally ill street people, say the numbers turning up at their doors have risen sharply.

That increase, according to operations manager Paulette Wheeler, is more than 200 per cent in the last few weeks.

“There’s definitely a vast increase. Normally, two or three of them would come to us each week, but now we’re seeing about 10 per week coming to us for help. We just can’t take them. We have a capacity to house 18 men. There are 16 here right now, but our staff is very limited,” she said.

For the 16 male residents she said, there were only three staff members — two during the day and one at night.

“The staff to client ratio is too (low), we can’t put our staff at any further risk,” she told the Jamaica Observer Central.

“It’s really sad when they turn up at the gates and you have to say to them, sorry you can’t stay here, we can’t help you. All we can do is offer them food, cut their hair and give them a shower,” Wheeler said, noting that the already meagre resources were being depleted by medication costs. “Some medication we used to get from the hospital, we’re not getting anymore because they’ve run out. We have to buy because we’re not getting the same volume from the hospital, and some types they don’t have at all,” she said.

But as the privately run Ebenezer Home grapples with the problem, the Manchester Health Department, the State agency mandated to deal with the issue, says it too, has problems with resources.

David Harris, deputising as secretary manager for the Manchester Parish Council, told the Observer Central that the matter came up for discussion at a recent meeting of the Local Board of Health for the parish. Harris said during the meeting, the chief public health inspector said his office lacked the resources to deal with this latest influx of mentally ill people.

The issue was reportedly raised by a councillor.

“As a result, the mayor instructed that a letter be written to the chairperson of the Southern Regional Health Authority, asking them to meet with us to discuss the matter. We’re awaiting a response… We’d want to find out what steps are being taken, either from their level or the ministry’s level, to make additional funds available for this increasing problem in Mandeville,” Harris said.

He pointed out that the Council did not have direct responsibility for taking mentally ill persons off the street, as “it is not a part of our budget”. However, he said that Ebenezer receives a monthly $108,000 subvention from the Ministry of Health.

While Wheeler would like to see more help from the Government for her organisation, she urged the Manchester business community to help as well.

“People will ring us up and complain that there’s a mentally ill person outside their shops, but they don’t do anything to help. We need a little more support …,” she urged.

She conceded however, that from time to time, a few organisations did offer assistance.

She says the situation at the home is even more touching because mentally ill women also turn up for help, but the institution has no capacity to care for women, as it was originally built in dormitory style, to accommodate men.