​There has been an increase in new admissions at the St. Lucia National Mental Wellness Centre due, in part, to substance abuse.

So said Charmaine Hippolyte-Thomas, Executive Director of Mental Health Services in the Ministry of Health, Wellness, Human services and Gender Relations.

The health institution also recorded a number of attempted suicides last year and is hoping to combat this situation through an education and sensitization drive within communities, as well as providing support for family members.

"The drive will do two things. Firstly, it will reduce on our admissions and secondly, it will allow persons to recover faster by providing the support that they need."

The education drive, Thomas explained, is expected to be a collaborative approach involving various stakeholders.

"We will be meeting on Friday to convene our first Mental Health Committee meeting. This is where different stakeholders like the Ministries of Education, Transformation, Human Services, and the Police are involved in ascertaining that persons actually get the necessary information in order to educate the public."

Discrimination and ignorance by family members and the community are among the primary issues encountered in the management and care for persons with mental illnesses.

The Executive Director explains that this leads to fear and abandonment by family members once the patient has been admitted at the Mental Wellness Centre.

"Very few family members do come back to receive patients from the Wellness Centre but the others we are not able to contact. Some of them will say they are just not interested and we find that persons who can live independently remain at the Wellness Centre. So we run the risk of not allowing persons a proper admission because there is competition for space.

"So we want to teach and empower families and communities so that we reduce that long stay at the Wellness Centre," Mrs. Thomas said.

She added that the Wellness Centre should not be used as a dumping ground by family members who can't seem to cope, and indicated that the patients who do exceedingly well are those whose family members are extremely supportive and receptive to the information received from the staff of the Wellness Centre.