I WOULD LIKE to express my thoughts as to where it is appropriate to build an adolescent residential unit. It has been suggested that it would be best placed on the grounds of the present Psychiatric Hospital.
Some people agree with this while others have opposing views.
Saul Leacock thought it was a bad idea; so do I. However, he was heavily berated by an Eddie Smith who claims to be a psychiatric nurse of many years’ experience in all aspects of psychiatric care.
While I do not believe that residential care for adolescents should be based in an adult ward in any psychiatric facility, I do not agree that it should be sited on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital either.
One would think that with the level of engrained stigma in Bajan society against those who are perceived to be different from the norm – for example, those with physical challenges, learning disabilities and behavioural problems – the last thing any right-minded person would wish to do is to further stigmatise children with mental issues by suggesting that a care facility be located at the Psychiatric Hospital.
Why is the Psychiatric Hospital such an attractive place to treat adolescents? What are the essential services there that these children can readily access? Does the hospital still use bloodletting, the spinning wheel or such like?
Psychiatry and its related discipline, psychology, are essentially talking therapies which can be carried out in facilities other than the Psychiatric Hospital.
Why not utilise a purpose-built unit or a retrofitted building to provide the necessary residential care for children?
If I walked into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the casual observer wouldn’t be able to guess where I was going. Conversely, the number of places to go is significantly less should I have to visit the Psychiatric Hospital in Black Rock. I could hardly be going there to get my diabetes treated, would I?
While such a unit is long overdue, let us consider where best it should be sited. Listen to those who can offer modern-day thinking and not those who may have several years of the same experience.
No, Eddie Smith, the Psychiatric Hospital is not the ideal location for such a unit.
– RANDOLPH PETERS, Retired lecturer in mental health and psychology.
