Today the Mental Health Resource Center on Vernon Street in Belize City celebrated its third anniversary. Since it was opened in 2014, they have been taking in mental health patients, homeless persons and sometimes even the elderly. Their program includes one meal a day as well as different games and social activities for these often neglected vagrants. But with such small staff and such a limited budget the Resource center says the number of patients they host have outgrown their capacity. And so today on their third anniversary they appealed to the public for financial assistance. We spoke to the Center Manager and the CEO in the Ministry of Health about their interventions as it relates to the issue of mental health.
Joyce Ellis - Admin. Welcome Resources Center
"We have over five hundred registered now to our centre. On a daily bases we will have like 45 visiting. When we have an event, we will have an outpour of participants because we use Facebook and chat and text to communicate, but they use the oldest way to communicate, word of mouth, 'hey boy something is happening at the centre' and you know what, we do have that, the crowd coming to just have fun with us. Most of the time when we the crowd, it's like we are having some sort of fun activity. We realize that they stay until 12 most of them. The centre is open until 3, but what happen is, they stay a little bit past 12 because they have to go out and look for that supper in the evening. We only serve 1 meal a day. So, I'll use this medium to appeal to donors out there, anyone who wants to help us in preparing a meal for the evening for them so we could keep them a little bit later until the sun cools, so that they can leave to go back where they stay. Again, I must emphasize it's not a residential, it's just a drop in centre, but what we want to do is start looking at providing an evening meal for them. So that they could stay a little bit longer and just relax from the elements."
Dr. Ramon Figueroa - CEO. Ministry of Health
"Well we do contribute to staffs here and we do provide when possible some financial resources for other projects, but within the wider scope of mental health in the country as I said in my remarks, it's a priority for the country, and it's a priority for the Ministry of Health. We are way behind in terms of what needs to be done to address the whole relation, to mount a truly national mental health strategic plan. So, we are looking forward to probably working with many of our stake holders with the Mental Health Association to see how we can get more technical personnel, because one of the things that we lack are train professionals, train psychiatric nurse practitioners, right now we are in the process of negotiating with training institutions to develop a cadre of psychiatric nurse practitioners for the country. One of the many things that needs to be done."
To find out more about how you can contribute to the center's cause you can call them at 2022511.
