The government will no longer house adult and child patients at the public hospital’s mental health unit following a report of gross indecency towards a young teen patient.
Health officials announced Thursday that the 11-bed unit at the Anthony S. Eden Hospital will now become a dedicated facility to treat children with mental health issues, and that older patients will be transferred to the Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre in East End.
Police earlier in the day confirmed they were investigating a report of a sex crime on a minor at the facility.
Speaking at a press briefing Thursday afternoon, Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown told reporters that police had received a report of “inappropriate sexual activity” at the ward, adding, “We are investigating a matter of gross indecency towards a child. That is being investigated by the Family Support Unit.”
Concerns have previously been raised about vulnerable children interacting with adults with mental health issues at the facility.
Health Minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, in a statement issued on Thursday evening, said her ministry had been working on a solution to separate adults from children at the unit since the National Coalition For Caymanians government took office two months ago.
“Once taking office, it quickly became evident to me that an urgent solution was needed to separate the adults and children receiving in-patient mental health services,” she said. “My ministry team and I have spent the last few weeks looking at a wide variety of options that would allow for a dedicated space for children at the Anthony S. Eden Hospital.”
She added, “We deem the current situation as unacceptable, and every other interim option that was presented to us would take well over a year to implement. So we’ve taken the decision to transfer the adult mental health in-patients to the under-utilised Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre, as this offers much faster of a solution to creating separate and dedicated spaces for the two patient groups.”
In the statement, the ministry said it had been planning to announce the change at a later date, but had moved up the announcement in order to reassure the public “that decisive steps are being taken in light of recent allegations of a disturbing incident involving a minor child receiving inpatient mental health care”.
Following the report of the incident, the Health Services Authority issued a statement to media saying the “highly sensitive matter” was under investigation and was being taken “very seriously”.
It added, “Without diminishing the seriousness of the matter, the HSA would like to remind the public of the far-reaching consequences of unverified statements. These include reputational harm to innocent parties, undue distress to families, patients, and healthcare professionals, and undermines public trust in essential services.”
Acknowledging that members of the public had questions and concerns over the matter, the authority said it was working closely with the “relevant authorities and stakeholders” and was not at liberty to share any more information on the incident at this time.
‘Underfunded, undervalued and fragmented’ mental health care
Ebanks-Wilks said the transfer of adult patients to Poinciana is the first step in a broader reform agenda, which includes “improving regulatory oversight, preventative care and creating a cohesive and modern healthcare system that meets the need of every age group”.
She said she considered that mental health had “for too long been underfunded, undervalued and fragmented across our system”.
The HSA, in its statement, noted that “overwhelming increases” in the number of mental health cases had created “enormous strain” on all its mental health facilities.
It said demand for in-patient care had risen exponentially since 2021, with adolescent admissions rising from seven that year to 36 in 2024. Based on admission numbers so far, the authority said it anticipated there would be more than 50 adolescent cases this year.
Demand for adolescent outpatient mental health services had also seen a 50% increase over the same period, the authority said.
37 attempted suicides by 10-20 year olds over six months
In what he described as a “startling statistic”, Minister for Youth Isaac Rankine, who appeared on Radio Cayman’s ‘For the Record’ talk show Friday morning alongside Ebanks-Wilks, said that in the first six months of last year, there had been 97 attempted suicides or overdoses, 37 of which involved those aged between 10 and 20.
“That is a problem we know exists right now … we are working on it. We can no longer kick the can down the road …,” he said.
To address the need for increasing in-patient care, the unit at the hospital has added three extra beds, enacted 24-hour security, expanded electronic monitoring and increased support staff for added patient safety, the HSA said in its statement.
- Additional reporting by James Whittaker
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Shame on every single member of government for the past 20+ years. Mental health issues have long been ignored in Cayman, if we pretend it doesn’t exist it will go away has been the thought process – same for sexual abuse, domestic abuse and incest in Cayman. Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre should have been opened years ago but the failure of all parties involved to work together to get it done is nothing more than gross negligence and failure to protect those most vulnerable. This should not have been a party issue but every member of government from the Premier, the Minister of Health, the Opposition and all the way down to those who built the property should have made a mental health facility a priority – the Covid years would have been the perfect opportunity to perfect all that was wrong with the building and have it fully functioning by the time we came out of lockdown. But again, politricks – each politician looking out for themselves and not for the good of their country. Of course, first priority was Kenny’s park, the cruise port, Joey’s special interest groups and Julianna’s ridiculous unnecessarily overpriced school “/sarcasm”. If only they had all put the same energy into addressing the health system/HSA (and insurance industry), and RCIPS failures in Cayman imagine how much better off we’d be. And the HSA board members and their exorbitant fees. Absolutely disgusting, shame on you all.