Questions raised over staffing shortfall at female addiction programme

The government has come under fire from opposition members over the temporary closure of Cayman’s only residential facility for female addicts.

Caribbean Haven Residential Centre, which had been offering residential services to women since 2008, suspended that programme in October last year, citing “operational and staffing considerations”.

In response to a parliamentary question posed by Leader of the Opposition Joey Hew on Friday, 1 May, Health Minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks confirmed that there are currently no residential substance-abuse facilities for women or children in Cayman.

She told Hew, “Female residential services at Caribbean Haven were temporarily suspended in October 2025 due to insufficient staffing, which created limitations in delivering gender-appropriate services and raise safety concerns.”

She added that services at Caribbean Haven had already been disrupted due to insufficient staffing, “which led to a decision by the former director to suspend the female programme”.

She said that her ministry is “working closely with the current director of the Department of Counselling Services to reinstate female residential services at Caribbean Haven as quickly as possible”.

Residential services at the facility are expected to resume within the next 12 weeks, the minister told lawmakers.

In a follow-up question, Deputy Leader of the Opposition Kenneth Bryan asked Ebanks-Wilks why there had been no funding available, when the programme had been covered in a two-year budget set in 2025.

“Did the ministry not know what was going on there … that female persons with addictions don’t have anywhere to go, and they’re not going to be able to get that until about a year? How did that happen?” he asked.

Ebanks-Wilks replied that a gap in personnel had emerged during 2025, and as it was nearing the end of the year, there was no funding available for additional recruitment purposes.

“Funding cannot be used for one year to deal with recruitment for the second year,” she said. “Funding is in place for 2026 and they are now seeking to deal with the recruitment for 2026, but the reason why it wasn’t addressed in 2025 was … when you recruit, it takes about three months at least.”

Bryan said the decision to stall the programme had impacted individuals in his constituency of George Town Central, including one woman who had been sentenced to Fairbanks prison “because they didn’t have a facility for rehab, like Caribbean Haven, due to this mishap,” adding that he did “not accept the excuse that has been given to this honourable House”.

But Ebanks-Wilks replied that the funding was not to simply replace members of staff who had left, but to pay for new positions. She said a policy decision had been made based on an assessment of a safety issue, noting that previously the facility had been rotating staff members and there were not enough staff to meet the safety concerns that were raised.

“So, the director determined that [there were] safety elements, and until there had been additional staff brought in, from a safety standpoint, the decision was made to cease the services,” she said.

Bryan questioned why this was not dealt with as an urgent matter by the ministry, pointing out that the programme will have been stalled for 10 months, by the time it is set to resume in July.

“I am now starting to question the ability to run the entity. … From a structural perspective, to keep the place running, something needs to be reconsidered,” he said, adding, “Do they have any intentions of reviewing the operations of the entity that we give the money for. This is a failure.”

The minister confirmed, “We are currently reviewing the operations between the ministry and the department.”