CHRISTIANA, Manchester — Mental health patient and advocate Andre Wellington is urging the Jamaica Government to place more emphasis on the investments being made on behalf of the mentally ill community.

“I’m concerned as a mental health patient as to the level of investment that we are currently making in mental health,” Wellington told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

According to Wellington, who is the dean of discipline at the Clarendon-based Alston High School, the country’s mentally ill community has long suffered due to a lack of adequate and affordable treatment opportunities. He pointed out that while stigma plays a role in the country’s response to mental illnesses, the affordability of the prescribed drugs has discouraged a lot of people from seeking further medical attention.

“I think that we are way behind in terms of our investment in mental health. I was saying to someone, not long ago, that one of the greatest challenges we have in mental health is that a lot of people suffer because they don’t have the means to access proper treatment and care. A part of the treatment and care has to do with the medication itself,” Wellington said.

While he pointed out that Jamaica has made significant strides in its response to mental illness over the last few years, Wellington told the Sunday Observer that more needs to be done to assist the people living with these illnesses.

“I will admit that we have seen significant improvement over the last five or so years but, certainly, it is not sufficient and it is not what I would expect we would have been investing at this time, given the information and knowledge that we have about mental health. The pandemic itself helped to highlight the importance of us taking mental health seriously,” he maintained.

“For me as a mental health patient and advocate, it pains my heart whenever I see situations where persons have to suffer, simply because they don’t have what to access proper treatment and care,” Wellington added.

One way in which the Jamaica Government has dedicated its resources to assist in the care of patients suffering from mental illness is through the various mental health clinics and resource centres across the country. There are mental health clinics and workshops at almost every government-run hospital across the country. However, Wellington pointed out that there is a need for more transitional facilities to assist with the integration back into the world of people from the mentally ill community .

“If you walk any township across Jamaica you will easily identify a significant number of mentally ill persons who are lying on the street. You can smell the stench of urine and faeces on some of them because they haven’t been able to get a bath. They don’t have anybody to take care of them or to provide that avenue for them to get some level of care that would ensure that their human dignity is maintained,” he said.

Wellington continued, “I have always spoken about the need for transitional centres. We have one in Mandeville, but that is not sufficient to cater to the vast amount of mentally ill persons we have who need that kind of service and care. We have them in Kingston as well, but of course they are far too limited. Furthermore, we have to have a shift in terms of how we look at mental health and how we deal with it — not just as a Government, but as a society.”

In referencing his own experience with a schizophrenia and psychotic depression diagnosis in 1998 at the age of 21, Wellington told the Sunday Observer that the Jamaican society also has a part to play in the country’s response to mental illness. He pointed out that a lot of mentally ill people may not be aware of what is happening around them during their episodes, so family members and friends are needed to lend a helping hand.

“I had a very rough time two years later in 2000 because I had what psychiatrists referred to as a psychotic episode. Having a psychotic episode means that you are now going to display deterioration in self-care, so you’re not going to have your regular baths or change your clothes, and then you’re going to start to roam, so I heard that I would just walk all over the place,” Wellington explained.

“I just want as a society for us to take the whole issue of mental health — and I think that everybody has a role to play. So, apart from it being our responsibility as mentally ill patients to care for ourselves, we need the care and support of the wider society and I think for that to happen then everybody needs to play a role — whether through advocacy, or through actual lending a hand through voluntary organisations to help bring about transformation within the community of the mentally ill,” he said.

“We have to recognise that mental illness is not a new disease. Mental illness has been around for over 4000 years so I would like to think that the time has come for us to arrive at a place and a position where we have the commitment, and the determination, and fixity of purpose.”