Visiting forensic psychiatrists Dr Janet Parrott and Dr Kiki O’Neill Byrne, from the Oxleas NHS Trust in London,UK, were in Anguilla from 20 -26th May 2012, working on a consultancy with Her Majesty’s Prison and the Ministry of Health.
Dr Parrott is the Chairperson of the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry, from the Royal College of Psychiatrists inEngland, of which Dr O’Neill-Byrne is also a member.
Following an initial fact-finding visit to the UK OT’s, by Mr Dave Marteau, a member of theUK’s Department of Health Mental Health in Prisons team, in 2011, the Dept. of Health and DFID identified a need for support around the issue of mental health in prisons in UK Overseas territories in theCaribbean.
Following liaison with the Ministry of Health and Social Development, it was decided that an initial piece of work would take place in Anguilla, with a view to undertaking similar work in Montserrat andBritish Virgin islandsin the near future. The tasks carried out in Anguilla by Dr Parrott and Dr O’Neill- Byrne were staff training in mental health awareness, which involved conducting a series of seminars for prison officers, juvenile centre care workers and probation officers, as well as the mental health professionals from the Psychiatric Unit atPrincessAlexandraHospital.
Discussions were also held with key stakeholders which included Dr Bonnie Richardson-Lake, Permanent Secretary, Shariffa Wallace, Rehabilitation and Development Coordinator at HM Prison, Monique Rey, Senior Mental Health Nurse, Dr Guinto, internist and Prison Medical Officer and Dr Clyde Bryan from Atlantic Star Centre of Medical Excellence, who is a representative of the local Mental Health Review Panel.
A number of psychiatric assessments and evaluations of individuals at HM Prison were also carried out by the visiting consultants.
Of the visit, Dr Parrott said, “It has been most interesting and enjoyable to work with colleagues inAnguilla. All the staff involved in the training and supporting our reviews of prisoners were keen to develop their understanding of the issues and work towards improving the quality of mental health care in this area. We would like to express our thanks to Ms Shariffa Wallace for coordinating the excellent programme of work.”
Ms Wallace said, “This has been a very valuable consultancy and we were privileged to have the expertise of two forensic psychiatrists at hand for an entire week. I think Dr Parrott and Dr O’Neill-Byrne accomplished a great deal in the allotted time and most importantly, have established the groundwork for undertaking future work with and support for our Department. This will help us in our efforts to improve both the recognition of the mental health issues within HM Prison and enable us to work more effectively with this vulnerable group of individuals who are part of the prison population. Currently the needs of people with mental illness are not well met in the prison environment and this is a long-standing concern which needs to be addressed.”
It is envisaged that further collaboration and partnership between the aforementioned stakeholders will be ongoing, and accessing better mental health service delivery will remain high on the prison’s agenda.
– Press Release
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
