Mental health legislation

| 03/11/2022 | 26 Comments

Sherene López Monzon writes: Firstly, thank you to Health Minister Sabrina Turner and her ministry for seeking to ensure that our legislation actively supports best practices for mental health patients. Secondly, may I suggest proactive legislation be put in place when dealing with and collecting mental health patients? I read with much interest and heartfelt concern that legislation will be enacted for policemen to collect mental health patients to bring them to a hospital. Unfortunately, this has been the practice for many years now.

I have been the victim of being manhandled by some policemen at times when I’m most vulnerable. This approach appears threatening to a mental health patient. Families at times lack understanding and might not necessarily know what is going on in their loved ones’ minds or their situation.

I want the public to know that mental health patients are stubborn but often loving and gentle. The times where a mental health patient will become aggressive is in the handling thereof.

For mental health patients, protective custody by policemen is not by any means protective as some are very cruel. Handcuffing the patient at ground level to the point where they can taste dirt in their mouths. This is a disgrace to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service and does not promote Caymankind and it certainly infringes on patients’ human rights.

Mental health patients are not animals. They are human beings in need of compassionate care and attention, just like someone having a physical condition seeking healthcare. If mental health patients are not committing any crimes, policemen have no business bringing them into custody or taking them to the Mental Health Unit. Their area of practice is law enforcement, not ambulatory delivery services.

There should be trained custodial mental health nurses/experts collecting mental health patients from their location. There should also be a genuine psychological examination and/or intervention by a psychologist prior to admittance. Furthermore, may I suggest a specially trained and fully equipped mental health task force be implemented for the Mental Health Unit?

Oftentimes this area of work is just a means for some, all in the name of a vainglory profession. Once you are a mental health patient, unfortunately, some psychiatrists are quick to administer anti-psychotic drugs, which can sometimes be detrimental to the patient. For example, mental health handling of patients at the George Town Hospital.

The procedure for handling mental health patients when one presents at A&E, in my experience, is not beneficial to the patient who is experiencing a physical condition at the time. Further, when a mental health patient presents at A&E who is experiencing something as simple as vertigo or exhibiting flu symptoms, which causes their equilibrium to be off-balanced, instead of dealing with the vertigo (a physical condition), the “mental experts” are called via telephone and without even examining or observing the patient for themselves.

Some A&E doctors are quick to acquiesce by plunging patients on the mental health ward. Before you realise it, your mental health is being compromised because drugs are given to you at such high doses which are not necessary at the time. Thereafter, what could be a short-term problem or fix ends up being a lengthy unnecessary stay on the mental ward.

I wish to see better care and compassionate handling for all mental health patients.


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Category: Health, Mental Health, Viewpoint

Comments (26)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    If Police Officers are to be the first assigned to deal with mental health patients they need some training.

    Some years ago my late brother-in-law suffered a diabetic episode and was acting erratically. His landlord called the Police and it was cruel how they tried to manhandle him without first assessing the situation. Glad he was able to land a few real good, old-fashioned kicks to one officer and when they realized he was able to defend himself they relaxed a bit. Got him to the hospital to discover his sugar was out of whack.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Sounds like there was more than diabetes as a problem if he was able to react so violently. I’m a diabetic and “episodes” don’t leave one able to act physically and aggressively like that, usually quite the opposite.

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  2. M. says:

    The thing is with the mentally ill, they can do very bad things to you and to others…I MEAN REALLY BAD THINGS! They are moments they are unconscious of what they do. THEY FALL INTO A TRANCE. But I think its wrong to judge them the same way you judge people who are not mentally challenged. MISS CAYMAN IS A PRIME EXAMPLE. People who don’t understand this field of science, are the first ones to wrongfully judge and condemn the mentally challenged. We have many here in Cayman from broken homes. And just throwing people in prison without a good rehab system would be a disgrace. IT SHOWS HOW LITTLE WE CARE FOR OUR OWN.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    A long time ago, before uber-“intelligent” expats showed up and told the Caymanian people that believing in God was backward, this problem did not exist.

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    • Anon says:

      But why don’t you CONTRAST Godfearing nations or governments with Atheistic / communist governments ??? Here are three countries that are Anti-God and persecute people of faith: North Korea, Cuba, and China. Why are you in Cayman? I invite you to go and live in one of these places. Have atheists ever got together and prospered a nation? Have they ever promoted freedom of religion? In contrast, America was built on certain Godfearing principles. The UK as well and much of Europe. India is,Godfearing and respects religions; it is growing in economic power.

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      • Anonymous says:

        secular societies are actually very successful. United States, France, Turkey, India, Japan, and South Korea are all governments that do not have religion codifying laws. are those nations successful enough for you?

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      • Anonymous says:

        India has an endemic rape culture towards women that is worsening. If you consider that acceptable to be a part of a god-fearing culture.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, back when you used to just keep special needs children hidden from society? I’d also like to add it takes a mentally ill person to sexually abuse children, much of which happens within the church and concealed by those same “god fearing” people.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I would strongly argue that believing in God and the Bible is a form of mental illness. These stories are obviously not true, God did not write the Bible and give you these laws to obey, and Jesus was not the son of this same fictious God, and he was not resurrected from the dead.
      These things were all made up by powerful people to control the minds and behaviour of the weak.
      Anyone who believes these things are literally true, and that God listens to them or gives them signs are mentally ill and delusional.
      I am confident in future that society will no longer tolerate being told how they should live their lives by these mentally challenged individuals based on their book of fairy stories.
      I can’t wait. The world will be a much better place with out it.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Do you believe in electricity? Can electricity be seen while you activate it when you throw a switch so as to turn on say a light???

    • Cheese Face says:

      Where did Caymanians hear about God in the first place?

      • Anonymous says:

        Where on earth did God hear about Cayman? Do we really think he’s interested in us? Why?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Cayman Disease was in fact very real, even back then.
      https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article/5/4/525/595721

    • Orrie Merren says:

      Stop hate speech, based devaluation of Christian spiritual beliefs, disguised as intellectual superiority of non-Caymanians.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Here is hoping mentally ill mothers with small children can get locked up now to protect the children from abuse. But in these islands mothers can do no wrong so it will be status quo as usual …

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    • Anonymous says:

      And actually lose custody in favor of a competent father so the children have a real chance in life.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Amazing there are down votes from this post. People support mentally ill abusive mothers ?

      • Anonymous says:

        as a mother unfortunately it’s been long thought that only we can provide for our children when sometimes it looks like the men should be more in charge in certain cases, albeit only a few.

    • Anonymous says:

      I am an adult now and had a mentally I’ll mother growing up. My dad left because my mother was so abusive to everyone he couldn’t take it. He tried to get custody but the system here protected my mother and didn’t protect me or my dad. I have a good relationship with my dad and none with my mom now. I have my own mental issues now because I wasn’t protected. The system here is a joke.

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  5. Darlene Mckenzie says:

    Maybe from the time our people attends mental Health. maybe they are looked @ as if they don’t know what they be doing & what they be talking & whenever something is going wrong in their life maybe they are always the people too looked down at as if they are doing too themselves. And alot or most of the time they’re the victims. But maybe because they are been or being given mental health care they are marked as crazy and mad. And alot of the people that get, got or getting mental health care are victims of abuse from relationships, deaths, bullying, separations, different types of hatassments from the management & other employees in the wotkplaces. Maybe sometimes the people that suppose too be giving the mental health maybe is on the side joining the people that is causing the hurt so that make the persons that seeking the help feel like a victim for the second time. Maýbe especially if they are persons in higher-up positions that is being reported on by the people that have got still getting or seeking mental health care. And maybe alot of the time maybe that is the reason people don’t go forward for the help until it is too late. Maybe because the lack of trust and confidence they have in the suppose too be professional mental health care

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  6. Anonymous says:

    How brave of you to write this heartbreaking revelation of how mental health patients have been treated in the Cayman Islands! I see the need for mental health understanding and help all over the place. The obsession with alcohol to calm the helpless feelings that many people have in these islands and, worse, harmful drugs like cocaine all over the place; anything to bring a moment of peace to those who need the right kind of care. The ignorance that surrounds the type of care given to those most vulnerable is horrible! Surely, more educated attention should be given to this social malady by a country as rich as the Cayman Islands!

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  7. Anonymous says:

    This is a very on point, heartfelt and brave post. Sherene López Monzon, you are a strong woman and the world needs more people like you.

    A large portion of the RCIPS are untrained thugs of which many can barely read or write. I doubt they have any training in Crisis Management and probably don’t even know what the word empathy means. The Mental Health Unit at the hospital definitely needs a huge budget boost.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Not all cases should be treated with a blanket but on a case by case basis. However, in cases such as Miss Cayman at someone’s house or the other incident, are you suggesting the police should not be called? I don’t think the wider community should live in fear because someone who has mental health issues can run amuck and do as they please without restraint. There has to be some law and order.

    If it’s the police then possibly a mental health division but essentially if you studied criminality, majority (not all) have some degree of mental health issues. Should they not be restrained/confined/incarcerated? Dahmer had mental health issues. Should he have been left to roam around?

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