Health Minister Sabrina Turner says a “plethora of problems” had been found with the new mental health facility, delaying the opening of the long-awaited centre in East End.
She says her ministry cannot give a timeline for when that facility will open its doors, despite already having 22 staff members.
She told lawmakers in Parliament on Wednesday that the Poinciana long-term mental health facility which, during its construction phase remains in the hands of the Public Works Department, has not yet received an occupancy permit from the Planning Department. Her ministry cannot take over the facility until that permit is granted, she said.
After years of delays, the groundbreaking for the $15 million project took place in October 2019, with an initial estimated finish date of December 2021. Since then, the completion date has been set back repeatedly.
Speaking in response to a request for an update on the facility by George Town South MP Barbara Conolly, Turner said she could not provide a date for when it would be operational.
“With the upmost respect to the honourable members of this House and the wider public, I will not be providing yet another estimated timeframe for the completion of the Poinciana rehabilitation centre, as that remains beyond my control and the remit of my ministerial team. Thus, I cannot provide a timeline for a grand opening for the facility as that will only happen once it has been fully handed over to the Ministry of Health and Wellness,” she said.
Conolly pressed for more information on the delays, saying, “I think we have waited far too long for this facility to be opened, and I think all the members of this House have constituents that are waiting to occupy this facility. There has to be some urgency. … We need some undertaking that this facility will be opened sooner rather than later. We need a timeframe.”
Turner replied her ministry had inherited the project and its problems from the previous administration. “There are some issues with [the granting of the licence] and being up to speed with … MEP [mechanical, electrical and plumbing],” she said.
She added that she had been advised that there has been a “plethora of problems that has been found in hindsight and they are trying to rectify that before we can safely be responsible to put patients in that facility”.
Temporary occupancy permit
However, Turner told legislators, progress was being made, and a temporary permit, known as a special permission to occupy, had been issued on 20 July for the three main buildings at the site – the administration office, the cafeteria and the activity centre.
The site also contains nine cottages, each with six bedrooms, a living room and kitchen, which would be occupied by patients.
“While this is not the update we would have hoped for, it is a step in the right direction,” Turner said, adding that being granted the temporary occupancy permission was a “milestone” which would allow the staff to begin preparing the facility to receive clients.
She told Conolly, in response to a follow-up question, that, as far as she was aware, the 22 employees of Poinciana were being paid.
Poinciana has been hiring staff over the past year, after Marcia Amoy Mullings-Thompson, former chief executive officer of the largest psychiatric institution in the Caribbean – Jamaica’s Bellevue Hospital – was appointed in June last year as director of the new facility.
Turner said, up until now, those staff members have been focusing on training and skills, policy development and procuring equipment, but now that they have access to part of the facility, they can “set up administrative functions, conduct site orientations and complete site-specific training and drills, among other things”.
Turner said two of the 22 employees are Caymanian, but over the next two months, with more hirings, 50% of the staff would be Caymanian. She added that another 18 Caymanians would be taking part in a psychiatric nursing training programme which is expected to begin in September this year.
Repatriation of Caymanian patients from overseas
Conolly also asked what arrangements were being made to repatriate Caymanian patients who are currently being treated in facilities overseas.
It has been a long-term practice for people in Cayman with serious mental health issues to be housed in psychiatric units abroad, because Cayman has never had a long-term facility to cope with them.
Turner said once the director had finalised the arrangements and procedure for the admission of facility residents, the next step would involve repatriating patients from Jamaican “group homes”.
She told MPs that Mullings-Thompson had been visiting those individuals to assess their needs and their immigration status, to determine if they need documentation, like passports, to enable them to return home.
“I know that some residents require travel documents, and then some further discussions will be held with Passport and Corporate Services to assist in preparing relevant paperwork.
“When an admission date is, in fact, confirmed, the director of Poinciana and her team will make the appropriate arrangements, including those in relation to travel.”
She added that when the patients travel back to Cayman, they will be accompanied by Poinciana staff.
Mental Health Commission response
Fiona McDougall, chair of the Mental Health Commission, in a statement to the Compass in response queries about the ongoing delays in opening the new facility, said the commission “like the rest of the Government and the public, anxiously awaits the certificate of occupancy from the Planning Department to enable the facility to receive clients”.
She added that the commission was pleased with the progress in hiring and training staff and the receipt of the special permission to occupy for certain buildings, allowing for site-specific orientations and drills.
“We have been receiving regular updates from the Ministry and from the Director on her visits to clients in Jamaica, and we have been involved in staff training and policy reviews, all of which must be completed before clients can be admitted to the new facility following receipt of the [certificate of occupancy].
Related Videos
It seems that the builders must bear some responsibility for this horror story, but it is farcical that over 5 years after construction was started we still have no idea when the patients can move in. We have 22 employees on payroll, some for a year, and the patients it was built for languish somewhere, some in overseas institutions. This state of inertia will continue until someone takes responsibilty for the project’s completion and that person should be the Minister of Health.