The Psychiatric Clinic and administrative section of the National Psychiatric Hospital have been recommissioned after the building underwent refurbishing over the past six to eight months.
This followed a collaborative review of the methodologies used to address psychiatric and mental illnesses by the Public Health Ministry and the Pan
Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence plants a fruit tree in the compound of the National Psychiatric Hospital, New Amsterdam, Berbice
American and World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO).
Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence and PAHO/WHO Country Representative, Dr William Adu-Krow recommissioned the two-storey building and planted symbolic fruit trees in the hospital’s compound, on Saturday, December 9.
Minister Lawrence told staff present that in 2018, the Public Health Ministry would focus on improving the work conditions and services offered at the Psychiatric Hospital while equipping it to facilitate ‘in and outpatients’.
“We want to ensure that we can be able to have this place fixed in such a way that you are comfortable to work here, and that it puts you in a good frame of mind to be able to render service to others,” she explained.
The New Amsterdam Regional Hospital’s Medical Superintendent (ag), Vineshi
The refurbished building housing the psychiatric clinic and administrative building
Khirodar noted that before the refurbishment, the staff worked in “adverse conditions” but still executed their duties. She welcomed the work that has been done thus far.
According to the Department of Public Information (DPI), Lawrence explained that while there was a move to lessen the number of institutionalised psychiatric patients, “the refurbishment of the Psychiatric Hospital and its surrounding facilities is meant to ensure the staff is comfortable and persons within the institution receive adequate rehabilitative care”.
The Minister also added that a new programme would be rolled out during the course of 2018 that would modify the way persons diagnosed with mental illnesses and admitted to the Psychiatric Hospital were treated.
She also announced that the Ministry would be assuming management of all Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) health facilities. “As a result of that, we will be placing some of the services that you offer here at those facilities, so it’s closer to the neighbourhood, it’s within the community’s reach and people don’t have to pay much transportation costs to get there, and more importantly, we can treat patients on an outpatient basis instead of institutionalising them,” she explained.
The Minister also recognised the Public Health Ministry’s “focal point in Region Six”, Alex Foster. He was instrumental in ensuring that upgrading of facilities and the compound was completed. Foster hinted that as time goes by, the National Psychiatric Hospital’s compound would also be transformed.
Dr Adu-Krow, when he reflected on the state of the facility prior to interventions, enthusiastically stated: “The transformation that has taken place here is massive.” He, however, cautioned staff that patients should never be seen as inmates. “We should begin to see this place as a hospital. We have ‘in patients’ and we have ‘outpatients’. We use the word inmates in other settings.”
