In the Sunday Observer, social activist Ms Maria Carla Gullotta relays the heart-warming message of a partnership to help prisoners in the Yuletide season.

We are told that Stand Up For Jamaica, of which Ms Gullotta is executive director, partnered with Sandals Foundation and Lasco Foundation to provide care packages and treats for inmates at Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre (General Penitentiary), and at St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre.

Ms Gullotta reminds us that for prisoners “living far from their families and children, Christmas is difficult, painful, and lonely”.

And further that “… marginalisation of prisoners does not help with rehabilitation”.

As we reflected on the truth of Ms Gullotta’s words, the thought came that they also apply to the mentally ill on the streets, on psychiatric wards of public hospitals, and at Jamaica’s primary mental health institution, Bellevue Hospital in east Kingston.

The evidence suggests that for some people — not only those diagnosed with mental illness — anxiety, depression, loneliness, and a dangerous sense of social alienation take on wings during the season of cheer. In that respect, our story ‘Seasonal depression: The silent killer of the Christmas spirit’ is an essential read.

That’s why we must look to give not just materially, but of ourselves — spiritually and emotionally — as we strive to uplift those around us.

In that respect, we hail the work of Bellevue Hospital’s new CEO Ms Suzette Buchanan who, we are told by Editor-at Large Mr HG Helps, is on track to transform lives at the hospital,and to change for the better the long-standing negative public perception of that place.

Ms Buchanan, we are told, formerly held executive positions at the Universal Service Fund and Caymanas Track Ltd. Although she lacks formal training in the health sector, she applied for the top job at Bellevue earlier this year because of a desire to “change lives”. Available evidence suggests she is already doing so. Her stirring story of how she helped a young mentally disturbed patient is worth repeating.

Said Ms Buchanan: “I recall my second week joining the hospital I met a young lady who suffers from some kind of psychosis… I began to track her progress, visited her as often as I could in an attempt to hear her voice rather than [only seeing] her constant stare into space.

“I met with the family so that I could better understand her journey. However, getting her to speak felt like an uphill task until one Sunday I was outside her ward working with the sanitation team and I heard a voice shouting, ‘Mi fren, come here.’ I looked up and saw her small frame and asked, ‘Jane Doe, is that you?’ She replied, ‘Yes, a mi, come in mi waan si yu.’ I entered her dorm and she ran and gave me the warmest embrace I have ever received, and tears started to flow down my cheeks. She is now back home with her family and living a healthy life. I have been tracking her progress and she has been doing extremely well.”

What an example for the rest of us! Sometimes all that’s needed to help others is to show love and that we really, truly care.