Building works on a long-awaited residential mental health facility in the Cayman Islands have finally resumed. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cayman Islands went into lockdown in March 2020, and construction of the 54-bed facility was temporarily halted. In June, other construction projects were permitted to continue, but for unknown reasons, work on the building has not restarted until now.
This delay is only the most recent in a long line of delays that has impacted the plans to bring more mental health services to the Cayman Islands. In 2015, plans for the mental health facility were proposed, but a variety of issues plagued the building plans from the start. Complications around the tendering process were finally resolved, but then, locating a building company that would take on the project proved to be difficult.
In August of 2019, years after the initial plans were proposed, three contractors finally agreed to do the building work. They signed government deals in preparation for the groundbreaking, but six months after breaking ground in October of 2019, progress slowed to a halt when the pandemic became a serious threat to public health and lockdown measures closed building sites across the islands.
In the Cayman Islands, the need for additional mental health services has been widely acknowledged. Specific facilities for the treatment of mental health conditions are particularly essential as the 8-bed unit at the Cayman Islands Hospital is often over-subscribed.
The new residential mental health facility will be able to treat up to 54 patients at one time, which means it can accommodate significantly more patients than the 8-bed unit at the Cayman Islands Hospital. While the building of the facility will provide more support for people who need mental health services, many predict that the facility will be used mainly by patients returning home from treatment at facilities overseas. This possibility suggests that few spaces will be left for patients who seek treatment for mental health conditions on an as-needed basis.
The new residential facility will not provide treatment to the criminally insane, despite the fact at both the men’s and the women’s prisons, inmates with serious mental illnesses may not be receiving adequate treatment. At both HMP Northward and HMP Fairbanks, the management of inmates suffering from mental health conditions has been deemed insufficient.
According to Health Minister Dwayne Seymour, the building project remains a high priority.
Officials representing the health ministry have assured the public that the construction of the new residential facility is still on schedule to finish in September 2021.
