Calls to have back halfway house

FREDERICK TROTMAN speaking passionately about the glory days of Everton House (in the background) the Richmond Fellowship of the Caribbean therapeutic institution for psychiatric patients, which is now closed.

by MARIA BRADSHAW

TWO MEN who were behind the early success of Everton House, the halfway facility for psychiatric patients, want to see the institution functioning again.

George Griffith, who was its first organiser, and Frederick Trotman, who held various positions on the board including president, said they were both devastated by the closure of the Richmond Fellowship of the Caribbean-operated institution at Dash Valley, St George.

The facility closed last October, and board member Dr Ermine Belle cited a lack of funds and the deterioration of the building as reasons why the Richmond Fellowship could no longer afford to operate.

Everton House, a therapeutic facility for psychiatric patients, depended mainly on monies paid to it by the Psychiatric Hospital.

Reacting to the closure, Griffith, who is executive director of the Barbados Family Planning Association, said such a facility was needed in Barbados.

“There is still a need for the halfway house. We had worked out that it needed about ten to 12 residents to keep it financially stable and when I was there it had an occupancy of about 16 residents.

“Over time there was a problem with the Psychiatric Hospital referring clients, but the intention was to decentralise the Psychiatric Hospital by having a facility which would serve some of the patients leaving the hospital to assist in reintegrating them back into the community and with their families.”

Griffith, who spent three years with the institution from its inception in 1989, said he was recently asked by an official at the Psychiatric Hospital to visit the institution to see what could be done to revive it.

“When I saw the facility I knew it was on its back. When I was there we used to have a lot of fund-raising ventures to raise money.

“We provided counselling for the patients and gave them the confidence needed to get back with their families and the community. Over time the vision seemed to have become obscured and the halfway house became a residential facility simply because the persons there did not work between the client and the family.

“All is not lost; the project can be utilised and put back on stream. It can be recovered,” he said, adding that the building should not be sold.

Trotman, 83, who lives opposite the halfway house, which he said was owned by his great-uncle before it was sold to Richmond Fellowship, was particularly concerned about the many people who were in need of the services which Everton House provided.

“I remember when Judge Christopher Blackman came up with the idea of a halfway house it was rejected. People in the community protested against it opening here and we spent several Saturdays going into the community and educating people about what we intended to do.

“When it was opened the community began to embrace it because we showed them what it was all about. We developed a farm and vegetable garden and we used to supply the whole of Dash Valley with their produce and we used to have several fund-raising activities to keep the place going.

“It was very successful - the residents loved it and so did their families. It was very beneficial.” (Nation News)

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