What’s Trending: Male patient, 73 stabbed at Mental

Fri, November 02, 2012 - 11:30 AM

The Nation’s Associate Editor, Sherie Holder-Olutayo takes a look at what’s trending today in Barbados.

The story that has our readers talking in today’s Weekend Nation is about the 73-year-old patient that was stabbed to death at the Psychiatric Hospital. Many of our online readers expressed concern about safety and patient checks at the institution. Here are some of their comments.

Lovey Donna P: My question is where is the safety at this hospital ? Does the staff at the mental not serve food with plastic cutlery? Are rooms not checked for things like the same knife that can endanger these patients? I wonder lately who cares , it seems like when yah sick you are listed as nobody any more . That 44-year-old man should be put in a different section from this 73-year- old since the 44-year old is there for murder already.

Gina Harewood: How did that happen?? Neglect I suppose. I'm disgusted that what happen is a life has been taken. I've have a brother who is mentally ill and if anything should ever happen to him there would be hell to pay.

Sharon Woolley: Staff at all hospitals are stretched to the limit, there should be more staff available. Maybe it is neglect but just how many staff would you need to do constant room checks, and also body checks? If a mentally ill person has murdered in the past then they should be separated in case they attempt to murder again, but I thought I read earlier that both these men had murdered in the past?

Rod Mann: If this does not prove he is not mad by killing two people then something is telling me I must definitely be insane .

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Posted by Pan Wallie 6 months, 2 weeks ago: So many unfortunate comments here! If you knew this Psychiatric Hospital, if you understand the nature of mental illness, you'd empathise with the staff. There are a million ways this man could have obtained this chisel and one of a million other inmates or staff could have been injured. Thank God it was no worse. It could easily have been a gun brought in by one of those who wander down to Deacon's Farm and return. How about those who sit up by the fencing on the main road, begging for cigarettes and money, who can and have been handed alcohol off the road? How about the volume of daily visitors who pass through the main gate without any proper security checking system? How about the fact that the surroundings are so open that anything could be thrown onto the compound?
To the real point, it spells trouble to effect renovations and still accomodate these sort of ill people in the same space, but I suppose there was no where to accommodate them. Now Government has to answer that. They let St. Joseph Hospital slip away.