Plan of Action for Mental Health Foundation Guided Living Project

Dear Mr. Editor,

As a community spirited person and the former Minister of VROMI who believed in helping institutions such as the Mental Health Foundation, during my tenure I assisted the former with a parcel of land around the zoo to build their own facility to help our mental patients on the island. At the same time I also assisted them with the drawings for their new facility.

Mr. Editor, I think this is the time for the Mental Health Foundation to start having discussions with the zoo and the animal welfare foundation to do one joint project where they will build a guided living home facility for their mental patients. They can work out an agreement with the zoo and the animal welfare foundation for their patients to do back yard gardening and assist in taking care of the animals.

The Mental Health Foundation should sit down with government to make sure their infrastructure project is part of the recovery fund from Holland. I am sure Dutch Foundations will provide funds for such a project for the mental health patients in St. Maarten.

Government should help them with finding a solution for their property in Cay Hill where they have to pump the septic twice a week which is a very costly affair for the Foundation which doesn’t have much funds to begin with. Government can spearhead this underground sewage line project with NV GEBE who should be looking at spearheading the entire sewage project for the island of St. Maarten.

In closing, we need to assist the Mental Health Foundation with building the proper facilities to accommodate their mental health patients which is in dire need of having the proper facilities and service on the island.

The Mental Health Foundation is trying their best with the little funds they have and their hard working and dedicated employees who are also trying their best to take care of our patients under the challenging circumstances.

The Board, Management and staff need our help of building a facility with guided living homes for their patients. The only way the Mental Health Foundation can do it is with the assistance of Government, other Foundations and the private sector working together as one team. That is the only way, we are going to rebuild back St. Maarten for now and the future to come.

Maurice Lake