Bermuda to send mental health inmates to UK

| 10/10/2010

(CNS): Reports in the Bermudian press this weekend have revealed that the government there will be sending prisoners with severe mental health problems to England for treatment as part of a new agreement with a UK hospital trust. The Bermudian Government and the Bermuda Hospitals Board signed a "statement of intent" on Friday with the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHFT), the Royal Gazette reported this weekend. The Trust will provide care for the prisoners at its Reaside Clinic in Rubery, West Midlands. Mentally ill inmates are said to make up 12 to 15 percent of Bermuda’s prison population.

Although there are no official figures regarding the percentage of prisoners at HMP Northward suffering mental health problems, it is believed to be at least as much as 15% and possibly more. The Cayman Islands, like Bermuda, has no proper mental health unit for those who are a danger to themselves or society.
 
The announcement in Bermuda follows the suicide of a 28-year-old paranoid schizophrenic at the country’s Westgate jail after battling for six years to secure specialist overseas treatment that experts said he needed. Robinson was incarcerated on the grounds of insanity after stabbing an American tourist in the back with a six-inch blade on Front Street in 2002.
 
Health Minister Walter Roban said, "I am very pleased to be signing this statement of intent, which takes us one step closer to providing services for Bermudians in prison who have severe mental health needs.  This was a key deliverable of the Mental Health Plan launched in June this year. It is good news that we have taken such a decisive step towards a permanent solution and I look forward to this agreement being formalised in the near future."
 
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  1. Anonymous says:

    We send our mentally ill to the Legislative Assembly.

  2. sammy says:

    Bermudans should take care of Bermudans!

    Caymanians should take care of Caymanians!

    Don’t see why the UK should be the ones to do it!

    Doesn’t sound right to me

    • Anonymous says:

      Whatever mental health issues these poor bug****s have, after sending them to Birmingham and Solihull you can definately add serious depression!