Detoxification unit for mental health patients

Mental health care is expanding in St Vincent and the Grenadines and by year end all the equipment and staff for the ten-bed drug detoxification unit will be in operation at the Milton Cato Memorial hospital.

SEARCHLIGHT HEALTH spoke to Patsy Wyllie, the Chief Health Educator in the Ministry of Health last week and she said that the new unit is part of the ministry’s effort to combat the frequency of drug usage and related mental illnesses.{{more}}

“Detoxification is an area that has been lacking in St Vincent and the Grenadines so this is an important step in that direction,” Wyllie said. She was attending a drug dependency reduction symposium held by Girl’s High School last Saturday in association with an European Union funded drug demand reduction programme.

The EU funded programme, worth close to EC$2 million, which was launched three years ago, is coming to an end and Wyllie said that although there were some disappointments along the way, it is a huge success.

The programme is made up of four components: training, education, rehabilitation, and community outreach.

“When we started we advertised for Non Government Organizations (NGOs) to submit programmes but for a long time we were not getting any submissions for these community outreach programmes,” said Wyllie.

She however noted that as the programme continued, and the other aspects flourished then they saw a pick up in community based projects, which were crucial to the overall success of the programme.