A mentally ill woman, half naked, and swinging two machetes, went into a local restaurant demanding food – not money, she wanted FOOD – threatened staff, smashed the countertops and a computer before leaving and finding her way to Burger King on the waterfront, George Town. She was arrested by police there, after threatening the Burger King staff with a machete that she freely swung and whirled and was shown on CITN/Cayman27 on Friday from footage caught on tape by the Burger King’s security cameras.

She has been charged with damage to property, causing fear or provocation of violence and indecent exposure.

At the time of writing this editorial the woman is locked up in a police cell.

It doesn’t take a doctor to know that this woman is mentally ill and/or high on drugs.

If someone is found walking the streets with a ‘normal’ illness, eg. pneumonia, epileptic fits, fainting, etc., the person is immediately taken to hospital.

I do not know if that has happened to this woman during her incarceration but if it has no police spokesperson has confirmed or denied it. I do not know if a doctor has even seen her. All I know is the poor woman has been charged and is locked up.

Shamefully I have even heard persons laughing about the incident.

Dr. Marc Lockhart, chairman of the newly formed Mental Health Commission, warned on local television, CITN-Cayman27, last Thursday (8) Cayman’s mental health problems are spiraling out of control.

He gave these reasons:

“We don’t have a long term facility, in which we can hospitalise people who require the longer term stay to get the proper treatment they need, and the severe issue of drug use, drug abuse, principally crack cocaine abuse has severely impacted the functioning of many people, especially those who have some basic underlying mental or psychiatric issues.”

And it is not just here.

Staggeringly, in the USA, “less than 20 percent of people with a mental disorder get properly diagnosed and effectively treated! This is an alarming statistic in light of the great prevalence of mental disorders (more than 20 percent of adults are affected annually) and the great suffering and burden they create. General medical care clocks in at about 55 percent receiving effective treatment — not so great, but almost three times better than their psychiatric brethren. The implications are what are so worrisome.” (From Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after survey of 200,000 adults in 35 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. June 2010).

Further afield in Taiwan a National Survey on the Community Attitudes Towards the Mentally Ill was executed in June 2005. To my knowledge there as not been a more recent one. Findings:

Background: In Taiwan, to strengthen the psychiatric rehabilitation system has been one of the primary goals of the Department of Health since 1985. Unfortunately, this endeavor has not been successful and it is believed that one of the barriers is social stigma towards the mentally ill. However, to date no national survey has been conducted for Chinese population on the focal topic using a random sample.

Results: The results revealed that the general population held relatively higher levels of benevolence, tolerance on rehabilitation in the community, and nonsocial restrictiveness. However, they held relatively less positive attitudes on non-authoritarianism and normalization. Overall, direct contact and age were the two most important correlates of community attitudes. Education and occupation were also significant.

Conclusions: Benevolent thoughts do not necessarily guarantee the acceptance of rehabilitation in the community or treating the mentally ill as a person like anyone else. However, the benevolent thought could be transformed into compassion and acceptance of another human being if people are given the opportunity to have direct contact with mentally ill persons. The results also indicated that community education should specifically target laborers of all age groups.

In a January 2014 story from the BBC under the heading “’Not enough’ done on mental health say charities” it claims in the UK “not enough is being done to spot the early signs of mental health problems in young people.”

“Rachel Hobbs, from charity Rethink, said: “All the evidence shows that the sooner a mental health problem is diagnosed and treated the less likely it is to go on to develop to become more problematic in later life and the more chance you have of a full recovery.

“A lot of people don’t realise mental health problems are completely treatable and you can recover. The earlier you spot it the more likely that is to happen.”’

So whom do we have here to spot mental illness early? Teachers? Is any training done to help them make such a diagnosis? If they do where do they go to? Where is the help?

Dr. Lockhart has said there isn’t anywhere. So when a mentally ill person acts ‘crazy’, out of frustration because she can’t get anything to eat, he/she doesn’t go to hospital. He/she is charged with a criminal act and locked up!!

It is indeed disgraceful!