Arouca rehab patients out of St Ann’s

After being released by police from an Arouca rehabilitation centre last Wednesday, most of the 69 patients have now left the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital, where they were kept pending a mental assessment, according to a relative of one patient.

Speaking with Newsday yesterday, the woman said her brother was among several patients released over the course of the weekend. She is now uncertain what her next move should be in finding a facility to take her brother who has schizophrenia.

“It’s really difficult on all of us right now to find somewhere that can take him.

“I heard from another relative whose uncle was at the (Arouca) centre who said that she just doesn’t have the means to care for him at home, and they won’t take him at St Ann’s – so the only other option is for him to live on the street.

“I’ve even heard that some of the relatives have even taken their loved ones back to the Transformation Ministry.”

Other relatives said while their loved ones are still at St Ann’s, they will consider sending them back to the Transformation Centre if possible.

One man said, “A lot of us don’t have the money or the space to deal with the kind of illnesses our loved ones have. That’s the whole purpose of having them at the centre in the first place. The conditions aren’t ideal, but we can’t offer them anything better than what we have at our homes.”

Newsday tried to contact the co-ordinator and owner of the centre, Pastor Glen Awong, to confirm whether he had reopened his doors to his former patients, but he said he was unable to comment on the matter until he got permission from his attorney.

The patients were released after an early-morning sting operation at the centre last Wednesday led by Police Commissioner Gary Griffith and Deputy Commissioner, Operations, Jayson Forde.

The police said the 69 patients were being kept in inhumane conditions at the centre and were were found in cages and with handcuffs.

Awong has disputed these statements as false.