PHILIPSBURG – Minister Emil Lee (Public Health) has designated the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) as the place for taking psychiatric patients in custody in urgent situations. The ministerial decree, dated August 11, 2017, was published in the latest edition of the National Gazette. The decree includes a permit to establish a private mental institution.
Minister Lee notes in his decree that such a decree has not been granted to the MHF before. The institution, located in Cay Hill, has been providing mental health care in St. Maarten since 2006. The MHF serves around 1,000 patents, a stark increase compared to several years ago when that number hovered around 600.
The MHF held a permit for taking psychiatric patients into temporary custody dates back to January 23, 2013. In 2014 the permit was extended until the end of 2016. In April 2017, the foundation asked the government for another extension.
The law considers any institution that has more than three psychiatric patents in its care as a private mental institution; because the MHF qualifies as such it needs a permit for its activities.
Previously, the MHF was unable to obtain such a permit “because it did not meet the requirements that relate to a change in the articles of incorporation and to establishing an alliance with other care institutions,” the decree states. The minister has discussed these requirements in the past in several meetings with the MHF. The conclusion was that a merger with the St. Maarten Medical Center and far-reaching cooperation with the Cooperation Foundation for Drug Rehabilitation (Turning Point) were not possible, even though collaboration with relevant care institutions is desirable.
In the meantime, the MHF has prepared changes to its articles of incorporation that include the establishment a patients council, a financial committee and a complaints committee. This way, the MHF will bring these articles in line with the Corporate Governance Code.
The decree mentions 18 conditions the MHF has to abide by under the permits to take psychiatric patients into temporary custody and to operate as a private mental institution.
One of these conditions is that the MHF extends its services “to the population of St. Maarten, without distinction based on, among other things, healthcare insurance.” The MF also has to make efforts to establish an alliance with one or more other healthcare institutions.
Coercive measures towards psychiatric patients in the MF’s care are only applied “short-term in an emergency situation if this is necessary to stave off danger and if less far-reaching alternatives are impossible,” the decree states.
Photo caption: The entrance to the Mental Health Foundation building in Cay Hill. Photo Hilbert Haar.
