"I believe above the storm the smallest prayer will still be heard, I believe that someone in the great somewhere hears every word”

Song written by Ervin Drake / Irvin
Graham / Jimmy Shirl / Al Stillman.

The above words are taken from the very
famous song “I Believe” first sung by Jane Frohman and then more
famously by Frankie Laine, both in 1953.

Wikipedia lists 27 artists who have
recorded the song although “I believe” it is a lot more.

Dr. Marc Lockhart, chairman of the
Mental Health Commission, didn't sing the song but uttered the word
“I believe” when he spoke to The Cayman Compass recently about
the proposed new mental health facility to be built here in East End.

He believes ministry officials are
committed to the new facility.

I'm glad he does, although the evidence
is hardly reassuring.

After the great hoopla in public
relations, in March 2018, with architectural drawings shown to the
media at a presentation of all the parties with happy smiling faces,
work was said to begin in the summer.

It didn't.

How about the first of this year?

It hasn't happened.

What about a new date?

None given.

Why the delay?

Dr. Lockhart said he was told it was
because of a labor shortage and increased construction costs.

Ah. So delaying the project is going to
decrease the construction costs?

If you believe that you should be the
first inmate in one of the planned nine cottages to be constructed
on 15 acres of land that will include an orchard and a vegetable
garden. I'm sure there will be plenty of nice men and women in their
nice, clean, long white coats to attend to you as you plant your new
potatoes.

According to a recent report in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, demand for mental care,
is rapidly rising. In the USA, in 2015, nearly 1 in 5 people had some
sort of mental health condition,

And it is not just finding suitable
places where mental health patients can get treatment. A 2016 report
released by the US Health Resources and Services Administration
projected the supply of workers in selected behavioral health
professions to be approximately 250,000 workers short of the
projected demand in 2025.

And the Review of Physician and
Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives, a 2017 report from the
physician search firm Merritt Hawkins, states that, "The
shortage of psychiatrists is an escalating crisis … of more
severity than shortages faced in virtually any other specialty."

The number of reported mental health
patients here is low. Nowhere near the 1 in 5 ratio suggested above.

What about the unreported cases?

The chronic STIGMA that is attached to
mental illness is the main reason. You have to be avery special
person who even wants to deal with a mental patient. Do you want to
tell your friend that you have someone in your family that is
mentally ill, or worse, you are mentally ill?

I'm afraid I do NOT believe there is a
total commitment by this government to the new mental healthcare
facility.

And I believe that to be a fact.

I hope I'm wrong. Maybe somewhere in the great somewhere of government will hear and heed the word.............