Cayman’s first long-term mental health facility, the Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre, is running at less than half its capacity despite an urgent need for residential care for people with moderate to severe mental health conditions.
Tabling the Centre’s 2025 annual report in Parliament, Health Minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks said that just four of its nine six-bed cottages were currently occupied, because the facility is currently operating at less than half the required staffing capacity.
The East End residential mental health facility received its first patients in December 2024.
The primary purpose of the facility is to provide a safe therapeutic and recovery-oriented environment for individuals with mental health conditions who require structured residential care.
Staffing struggles
Ebanks-Wilks told MPs that there were ongoing attempts to resolve the issue, “such as providing psychiatric training to upskill experienced local nursing assistants and registered nurses, and to expand recruitment outreach abroad”.
She said the facility’s ability to hire and train much-needed staff “is further limited, and this has required budget reallocations and preparation of business cases for additional funding.”
The minister did not say how many of the bedrooms were occupied in each cottage, but if all four of the cottages were full, then this would mean that just 24 beds out of a possible 54 were occupied.
Other problems experienced by the facility included delays in processing payments and procurements, Ebanks-Wilks said.
Despite those difficulties, she said that the Poinciana team “remains resilient and committed to ensuring continuity of operations and maintaining a high standard of care throughout the year”.
Headed by clinical director Marc Lockhart, the facility is designed to support psychiatric stabilisation, psychosocial rehabilitation and reintegration into the community. It maintains monthly programs for all residents which, in addition to psychiatric and therapeutic elements, also emphasises the development of functional living skills. Regular activities include sports sessions, community outings, arts and crafts, and computer training.
After decades of calls for Cayman to have its own long-term residential facility to cater to individuals with mental health problems – and five years after the then Progressives-led government announced plans to build it – construction of the 54-bed centre finally began in October 2019 with a groundbreaking ceremony. It was another five years before patients could be admitted for treatment.
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