Expansion of mental health care celebrated at Poinciana

More than 100 people attended an open day on Sunday, 11 Oct., at the Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre to see for themselves how the two-year-old facility is operating and how mental health care is expanding in Cayman.

The event was held to mark World Mental Health Day and was the culmination of a week-long series of activities that are seen as part of a continuing dialogue about the needs of people living with mental illness.

The open house provided an opportunity for the community to learn more about Poinciana’s work, tour the facility, engage directly with professionals in the healthcare and mental health fields, and connect with organisations offering services and support to individuals and families across the Cayman Islands.

A central feature of the event was a 90-minute panel discussion on the evolution of mental health services in the Cayman Islands, the growing demand for specialist care, and the importance of continuing to strengthen the continuum of services available to people living with severe mental illness. The discussion was moderated by Jennifer Weber, a member of the Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre Advisory Council.

The panel featured Parliamentary Secretary Wayne Panton; Dr. Steve Tomlinson; Marcia Mullings-Thompson, director of Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre; Dr. Marc Lockhart, chairman of the Poinciana Mental Health Advisory Council; Dr. Hilary Wolf, chief medical officer; and Fiona McDougall, chair of the Cayman Islands Mental Health Commission.

‘No healthcare without mental health care’

“The discussion highlighted the significant progress made in healthcare provision in the Cayman Islands and the importance of recognising mental health as an essential component of overall health and wellbeing,” Poinciana noted in a press release.

Lockhart underscored this message with a simple but powerful statement: “There is no healthcare without mental health care.”

The press release stated that Lockhart’s words captured a central theme of the discussion. “Mental health cannot be treated as separate from healthcare as a whole. It must be recognised as an integral part of the services, support and treatment available to individuals and families throughout the community.”

Speaking on Compass TV’s Daybreak show on 12 Oct., the morning after the open day, the centre’s director Mullings-Thompson said the purpose of the public event had been to enable the community to get to know the facility better and understand the work that goes on there. “And also, to understand that we are here to help, to provide mental health support to their relatives in times of need,” she said.

She added, “We also want them to be able to have confidence in the care that we provide at Poinciana because, of course, we want them to be able to know that they are in a safe and comfortable space when their relatives are there. We want to also allow persons to know they can come and visit and lend a helping hand.”

Mullings-Thompson also highlighted the centre’s volunteer programme, saying the centre wanted the local community to become involved in the facility. “We want the public to be a part of it, because Poinciana is not just an ordinary organisation; it is a community, a community where we want to integrate the public … to be part of what we do there.”

Such involvement from the community would help “break the stigma of mental health,” she said.

Supporting mental health-care staff

Lockhart, also appearing on Daybreak, noted that among the challenges facing facilities like Poinciana worldwide is, firstly finding trained and competent staff, and, secondly, burnout among staff.

“The work that’s done in mental health care, it’s a very challenging task. You’re the receptacle of the person’s problems that’s in front of you. You have to take that on in an empathetic way and deal with many challenging situations, so we find that burnout is the number one challenge for mental health providers, and that has amplified or increased since the pandemic.

“So, nurturing our staff, protecting our staff, guiding our staff, encouraging our staff, is extremely important for retention and for them to provide the care that our residents require,” he said.

To find out more about the Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre, visit prc.gov.ky.