“Improving lives one mind at a time…”
1st Quarter 2014
The Mental Health Foundation
Newsletter
In This Issue
“living with Schizophrenia”;
MHF’s Theme 2014
“Living with Schizophrenia”
MHF’s Theme for 2014
Schizophrenia is a treatable disorder with
treatment being more effective in its initial
stages however 50% of those affected by
this disease are without care out of which
90% are from under developed countries.
Thanks to the vision, hard work and struggle
of many individuals, both in and out of the
mental health field - in the development and
progress of mental health care on the island
- persons that are afflicted by this dreadful
disease and their family members can find
help and understanding.
In 2014 the mental Health Foundation is
dedicated to bringing awareness to Schizophrenia, its impact and treatment. You can
follow us on twitter and Facebook for the
latest updates on programs and events for
this year. We hope you enjoy this issue.
Mental Health Experience:
MHF Tour for students
Spotlight - New Staff:
Know the new faces at MHF
MHF—A new Way forward:
Transforming care
Schizophrenia:
a Short historical view on
Schizophrenia and
mental health care
Want to Donate?
Contact our administration at number 5421677
ext 502 or 503 or e-mail us
from our website at
www.mhf-sxm.com
Want to order Candles?
We’ve got candles on sale
To place an order please
go to our website at
www.mhf-sxm.com
Want to volunteer?
Contact out HR Dept. at
5421677 ext 516 or e-mail
us from our website at
www.mhf-sxm.com
The World Health Organization states that
of the 450 million people that suffer from a
mental illness, 24 million are affected by
schizophrenia worldwide. Schizophrenia is
a cruel disease that robs young people, primarily between the ages of 15 and 35, of a
normal future – an education, career and
future relationships. It often includes psychotic experiences, such as hearing voices
or delusions rendering everyday life practic- Respectfully,
es overwhelmingly challenging. Fortunately Information and Prevention Department
Mental Health Experience
MHF Tour for students
A total 8 students from 3 secondary schools
took part in the “MHF Tour” between January 27th and February 4th. The students
were given a guided tour through much of
the facility and granted 10 minutes to sit
with various mental health professionals to
discuss study and career paths in the field of
mental health. Requests to visit the founda-
tion were taken at the Mental Health Foundation booth during the Student Career and
Study Fair held November 7th 2013. “The
Mental Health Foundation should continue
giving students this opportunity” says one
student of the Sint Maarten Academy upon
completion of her tour.
Continued...
Mental Health Experience Cont’
News and
MHF Tour held for students
“… I would like to the facility to expand
more wider to accommodate, more patients” says one student from Milton Peters
College. “Thank you so much to everyone I
spoke with, I enjoyed this tour so much and
I really appreciate the time and effort that
was put into speaking with me” Says an-
other from Caribbean International Academy. All of the participants expressed a
stronger desire to pursue their goals in
mental health. The Mental Health Foundation wishes these students and their respective families much success in their endeavors.
Spotlight: New Staff
Get to know the new faces at MHF
Tess Blom—HR Manager
At The Mental Health Foundation we are the afternoons Esther has been participating
always on the lookout for dedicated and in dance contests and cooking classes too!
innovative persons to join our team. We
are please to highlight two new staff additions —Esther Simmons and Norman
Muller. Here is a look into the work and
lives of these amazing people!
MHF could not be more pleased to have St.
Maarten born Esther Simmons employed as
of June 2013.
Esther returned
to St. Maarten
after living for
many years in
the Netherlands
and is a very
outgoing person.
She works as a
Social Psychiatric Worker and
is in the progress of setting up the Guided Living facility at the Mental Health Foundation in a
structured manner. Her specialty is in offering clients daily structure to enhance their
independence and creating a home away
home. Clients absolutely love to have fun
with her and are never bored with this dedicated lady around. In the morning they are
guided through cleaning their rooms, doing
their laundry and food shopping, whereas in
Norman Muller commenced in January
2014 as MHF’s new Registered Nurse in
the Admission department (Closed ward
and Crisis cell). Norman was born and
raised in Surinam but recently moved to the
island of St. Maarten where he started to
work in the St. Maarten Medical Center.
After a period of time Norman realized he
missed working in a psychiatric facility.
With 6 years of experience in the Psychiatric Center in Surinam, MHF did not hesitate
to contact him. MHF sees experienced Psychiatric nurses as a true asset, seeing that
these are very hard to find in St. Maarten!
Norman has years of experience with psychiatric patients and has fulfilled courses
such as extensive aggression training which
will be of a great benefit to MHF staff and
clients.
Updates
MHF 2014 Theme
The Mental Health Foundation theme for 2014 is
“Living with Schizophrenia”.
Stay connected as we explore
this theme this year by going
to our website:
www.mhf-sxm.com
Upcoming Events
Join us on “Now You
Know” with Valerie van
Putten on PJD2 as we explore into the subject of
Schizophrenia
between
February 25th and early
March 15.
 Read our Mr. Psych Column published every other Tuesday in the Health
and Beauty Edition of the
Daily Herald and on Mondays in the Health Edition
of the Today's Newspaper.
You may post your questions to
info-prev@mhf-sxm.com
Stay connected and visit us on
twitter and Facebook. Check
our calendar of events on our
website at www.mhf-sxm.com

The Mental
Health Foundation
#1 Leopard Road Cay Hill, St.
Maarten
Phone: (721) 5421677
Fax: (721) 5421687
Mobile: (721) 5205556
www.mhf-sxm.com
MHF - A new way forward
“Transforming Care”
By Eileen Healy—MHF Director
the Board of the foundation and Administration and the productivity of the Treatment staff. While budget cuts are predicted,
in actuality investments are necessary but
cannot be expected.
Since the world has been experiencing a
recession for the past years and some countries are still struggling to overcome this,
others are gradually picking up pieces.
Much of the difficult times can be contributed to efficiency and control when managing a country. In the US the Bush administration generally left much responsibility
and accountability up to Banks and Corporations which lead to a collapse of the
economy. CEO salaries exceeded what
even they had ever dreamt of while monitoring the markets was sadly no longer a
priority and thus a crisis was inevitable.
The organization of Care is generally complex and requires a clear vision.
There are 2 ways to look at providing care:
a. Task oriented, the patient deals with different care givers
b. Patient oriented, one caregiver deals with
all aspects of the patient
Option b is the most effective and patient
friendly but does require a new way of
looking at care giving.
With this in mind MHF will enter into a
new era of care provisioning.
Dr. Gandotra, presented at the conference
in October, 2013 the phenomena that patients of the foundation are utilizing most
of the care products while the organization
of the care is not adequately facilitating
this. (Task oriented care)
The challenge is now for MHF to Budget
each care product separately by doing so
monitoring the expenditures, while facilitating a smooth flow for the patients from
one care product, to one or more care products.
St. Maarten’s economy grew 1.1% in 2013
a decrease from 1.5% in 2012. However, it
is not clear what measures Government
will take to increase the growth of the
economy in 2014. If the decrease in economic growth continues, difficult times are
ahead of us no matter what health care organizations try to contribute. Health Care is
expected to cut costs and yet continue to MHF is presently analyzing the organization of care and the distribution of the inprovide quality care
come to the 7 care products: (Out patients
MHF has grown from 3 staff members and
care, Ambulant care, Admission, Day treat140 patients in 2007 to 33 and 900 patients
ment (Faraja), Admission, Crisis Intervenin 2013. In 2010 the building in Cay Hill
tion and Information and Prevention)
was bought to facilitate Crisis patients, Admissions, Guided living more space for all With the staff, discussions are ongoing and
care products and a happier staff and satis- preparations are being made as to how and
to best approach the needs of the patients,
fied patients.
save money and increase the quality of
It was a huge investment for such a young
care.
organization, but all agreed a necessary
one. Till date, the foundation has managed
a financially solid organization with no
deficits. Thanks to the enormous efforts of
News and
Updates
Thank you
MHF Sponsors!
The Mental Health Foundation
would like to thank its sponsors
for their support during 2013.
We would like to extend a special thanks to the following
sponsors who have played a
part in the production and airing of out mental health spots:
Ennia Insurance
Lazer 101
PJD2
WTN
Pearl FM
Today Newspaper
AVS News
SXMIslandtime
The Mental
Health Foundation
#1 Leopard Road Cay Hill, St.
Maarten
Phone: (721) 5421677
Fax: (721) 5421687
Mobile: (721) 5205556
www.mhf-sxm.com
Schizophrenia:
A Short Historical View on Schizophrenia and
Mental Health Care
Schizophrenia
is a serious
brain disease
that expresses
itself in terms
of disturbances
in
thinking,
perception and
behavior.
Those affected find it difficult to understand or interact with the everyday world.
This disease is a long-lasting illness that
has many different kinds of reoccurring
symptoms characterized by disordered
thoughts, hallucinations, delusions, and
social withdrawal. Among its victims we
find ordinary young men and women in the
prime of their young lives, between the
ages of 15 and 35. While the definition of
the schizophrenia used today was but created in 1911 the disease is believed to go
back thousands of years.
In early history, persons who suffered from
Schizophrenia were accused being possessed by the devil or an evil spirit. Due to
its frightening symptoms and as a result of
fear, those affected were ostracized,
starved, beaten, or even burnt to death.
They were subject to many cruel and inhumane procedures like trephining which involved drilling a hole in the skull to let the
“spirits “ out and bloodletting which involved cutting the patient to let excess
blood run out.
By the 19th century health professionals of
the time made great efforts in trying to understanding the disorder. Specialists like
Dr. Ewald Hecker and Dr. Emile Kraepelin
brought a closer understanding and coined
terms like ‘hebephrenic’ and ‘Dementia
praecox” that are still used today however
not in the same context. Despite these advances, treatment at the time included beatings and confinement to dark locked
rooms.
In the 20th century the term schizophrenia
was first made public in a monograph by
Eugen Bleuler in 1911 but it wasn’t until
1957 that today’s definition of the disease
was created by Kurt Schneider. Although
there were improvements in what was
called “insane” asylums at the time, controversial procedures like lobotomy, a surgery
that consisted of cutting part of the brain
and Electro-shock therapy were widely
used. However, with the introduction of
antipsychotic medications in the mid1950’s, many individuals suffering from
schizophrenia were for the first time given
a
chance at regaining control of their lives.
Today, schizophrenia affects roughly 1% of
the world population which means that 1 in
every 100 are affected. Although Modern
advances in medicine and treatment have
freed t e victims of Schizophrenia from
the shackles of institutional life and helped
them to manage the symptoms of their illness, these individuals remain on the sidelines of mainstream society. By increasing
access to treatment and services, reducing
employment discrimination and social stigma, and favoring community integration
we could improve the quality of life and
create a future where fewer people die by
suicide, become homeless, become addicted to drugs and alcohol, and/or suffer from
depression and anxiety. A future where
individuals are healthier, families and relationships are stronger, workplaces are more
productive, and communities are more stable.
Anecdotes about
Schizophrenia
“Due to Schizophrenia, my brother
went from being an outgoing, friendly
and intelligent person to having difficulty completing a sentence. I have so
much anger because the disease sucks
the life out of you and your family too. I
miss the brother I once knew.”
- Anonymous
“Your daughter has schizophrenia,” I
told the woman.
“Oh, my God, anything but that,” she
replied. “Why couldn’t she have leukemia or some other disease instead?”
“But if she had leukemia she might
die,” I pointed out. “Schizophrenia is a
much more treatable disease.”
The woman looked sadly at me, then
down at the floor. She spoke softly. “I
would still prefer that my daughter had
leukemia.”
- E. Fuller Torrey, M.D.
“I have a brother that has schizophrenia, and he would not harm a fly. He
has, however, been bullied by people
who know nothing of the condition. He
is in a much better place than he used
to be, with care and family support he is
managing reasonably well. Schizophrenia comes in many forms and sufferers
deserve to be treated as individuals who
have the ability to eventually manage
their conditions.”
- Anonymous
The Mental
Health Foundation
#1 Leopard Road Cay Hill, St.
Maarten
Phone: (721) 5421677
Fax: (721) 5421687
Mobile: (721) 5205556
www.mhf-sxm.com