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Posted: Tuesday 20 February, 2018 at 4:07 PM

Government renames Mental Health Facility in Honour of Dr. Arthur Lake

By: Jermine Abel, SKNVibes.com
    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Feb.20.2018 – THE Team Unity Government today officially renamed the Mental Health Day Treatment Center, the Dr. Arthur W. Lake Mental Health Treatment Center.
     
    The change comes after a lengthy delay in formally renaming the facility due to challenges encountered by the government last September.
     
    Speaking at a ceremony at the Lime Kiln-based location, Prime Minister, Dr. Timothy Harris explained that the change is in recognition of the contribution Dr. Lake played in mental health in the Federation.
     
    In honouring the late Dr. Lake, Dr. Harris intimated that history will record that Dr. Lake’s growing interest in psychiatric medicine led him to establish the St. Kitts Mental Health Association.
     
    He added that Dr. Lake was also the first in the Federation to set up mental health clinics in the country.
     
    “Some of his contemporaries remember vividly his regular mental health clinics held at the Basseterre Health Centre on Connell Street, where he was ably assisted by District Nurse Carmen Allen, wife of the former Deputy Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Mr Errol Allen.  In those days, psychiatric patients were confined to The Cardin Home, with those requiring critical care being transferred to Antigua for further treatment.  Besides his regular Mental Health Clinics, Dr Lake was also well known for seeing mentally ill patients at his office on Fort Street, Basseterre.”
     
    Junior Minister of Health, Senator Wendy Phipps reminded that when the center was opened back in 2016, they gave a commitment that the renaming of facility is only one of two plans the government has for addressing mental illness.
     
    She explained that the second aspect, is live-in assistance for those mentally ill persons.
     
    “… persons who are recovering from mental illness and who are well enough to hold to a job are not lucky enough to be on their own in terms of paying rent, owning a home or have their family… would have a place where they can stay by a warden appointed by the Ministry,” Phipps said.
     
    According to Dr. Harris, his government is committed to organizing a National Conference on Mental Health, bringing healthcare experts, faith leaders, advocates for the mentally ill, and other stakeholders together to have a national conversation about mental health in St. Kitts and Nevis.
     
    He stated that they hear conversations about mental health taking place in the United States, in the wake of increasing amounts of horrific mass shootings, including the most recent in Parkland, Florida, where 17 children met an untimely, tragic end.
     
    Against that backdrop, he noted that they want to encourage a national conversation aimed at embracing mental illness and ending the stigma.
     
    “I reiterate that my Team Unity Government is committed to leading through service, while fostering a sense of unity and solidarity among ALL of the people – no matter who they are or what illness they have. Sickness does not discriminate but people do.”    
     
    The center was opened in December of 2016 at a cost of $1.3 million and is a treatment center and not a lie-in location for people with mental illness.
     
    Though the facility is operational, there is some additional technical work that is left to be completed.

     

     

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