It is estimated that as many as 30 thousand Belizeans are living with some form of mental illness. But the face of mental health is the 60 or so mentally challenged and drug addicted persons who roam the streets of the city daily. They roam the streets because most of them are homeless and now that they’ve been forced out of the Battlefield Park – their situation has been made that much worse. And that is why the Mental Health Association has jumped in with an idea to open a mental health resource center. You can call it a daycare center for the mentally challenged. Secretary of the association Kathy Esquivel says it will provide a hot meal and counselling.
Kathy Esquivel, Secretary – Mental Health Association
“There are discussions of what people want to do with these people and we feel that there are not sufficient options that offer people a dignified quality of life and the solution is not to lock people up because being homeless is not a criminal offence.
We are trying to open a resource center where people can get a hot meal, get counselling, it won’t be a medical center – it will be for social support and that is what we had the breakfast for and we already have some commitments. The Mennonite community from Spanish Lookout has committed $20,000 and we have other commitments. So we’re trying to get people to commit so that we can actually get that started.
We need cash. We need lots of things like pots and pans and things and furniture for the center, chairs. We will need ongoing support in food and money to make sure that we can keep it going and we will need volunteers and we would just like people support so they understand that people who are homeless or mentally ill or have a substance abuse problem are human beings and that we must try to do everything we can to help them help themselves.”
The association needs $70,000 to set up the center and $4,000 per month to run it. If you are willing to assist – you can email mentalhealthassociation@gmail.com. Last year 16,000 Belizeans sought help for mental health problems – most of them were for depression but it includes the chronic disorders such as schizophrenia.
