Deyalsingh: Better mental health service coming

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says plans to decentralise mental-health care will reduce the need over time for the St Ann's Hospital to handle the majority of such cases.

Deyalsingh made the statement in the Senate on January 21.

He reminded senators of the the national mental-health policy, which outlined a plan to decentralise mental-health services.

Deyalsingh said the strategy was to shift from an approach of institutionalising patients to community-based mental-health care closer to home.

In the public hospitals, he said, there are approximately 51 beds for psychiatric patients.

Those include 12 at San Fernando General Hospital and 19 at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.

Deyalsingh said there were plans to add 50 more beds in general hospitals this year. That includes 24, ten, ten, and six at the new central block, Port of Spain General Hospital; Arima Hospital; Sangre Grande Hospital Campus; and Point Fortin Hospital respectively.

Deyalsingh said while those improvements were being made, there would still be a need to rely on St Ann's Hospital for a certain degree of primary, secondary and even tertiary mental-health care.

But once mental-health care services are expanded, he added, "It is expected to gradually reduce the need for and reliance on the St Ann's Hospital over time."

Earlier in the sitting, Senate President Nigel de Freitas paid tribute to former clerk of the Senate Russell Griffith, who died last month.

He described Griffith as a dedicated public servant at the level of the Parliament and in other areas where he functioned in the public service.