Daily Black Immigrant News
Mental Health remains a priority area for the government and the Ministry of Health is committed to improving the provision of mental health services in Guyana.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said the Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Bills will help reorganize mental health care in Guyana.
The Ministry is focusing on improving services at the National Psychiatric Hospital in Berbice.
“We have a new psychiatrist who has moved to the National Psychiatric Hospital. We have adequate staff in the institution, in addition to the nursing staff, we also have psychiatric aids working there. We have more than 70 psychiatric aids that would help patients on a 24-hour basis. So we have been constantly working to improve the facilities and services we offer at the psychiatric hospital,” said Dr Anthony.
Minister Anthony noted that when the government took office in 2020, mental health had been neglected. There was also poor service at the facility.
The government is now working with patients to see less institutionalisation, one of the provisions in the new mental health legislation.
“One of the active programs we are working on is the deinstitutionalization of the patients we have there, because once they have passed the acute stage, then they can be managed closer to home,” said the Minister of Health.
This would require less staff to be present at the hospital itself, but people can be managed by returning home and attending regular clinics for treatment.
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