An investigation is underway into the case of Oswayn Littleton Vieira, whose body was found in the Canje River after he escaped from the New Amsterdam Psychiatric Hospital (NAPH), Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy said on Thursday.
Ramsammy said the case represented one of the dangers of a healthy ministry programme to clear the city of street dwellers, while noting that despite public pressure to address the problem, questions still persist about whether the ministry should take an interest or turn a blind eye.
Vieira’s family has said that the man, who was removed from Georgetown along with other street dwellers ahead of its hosting of last month’s UNASUR conference, did not suffer from mental illness.
According to Vieira’s mother Jennifer Sobers, his family was also not informed that he had been admitted to the NAPH. Vieira lived with his mother in Tiger Bay, Georgetown and usually did odd jobs for persons around the city.
Ramsammy said persons picked up from the street by the Health Ministry are subjected to psychiatric assessments. He added that the ministry has been picking people up from the streets twice a month and he emphasized that it is “not a new thing.” The persons picked up are processed medically. The persons without any psychiatric problems, which he said also includes substance abuse, are sent to the night shelter while the others are taken to the NAPH.
He said that patients who are sent to New Amsterdam require either short or long term treatment. Over the years many persons have been picked up from the streets and sent to New Amsterdam. Ramsammy said that some have been discharged from the hospital while others remain; some 30 persons were referred there since the programme started.
The problem of street people, including some with mental problems, has been raised before, Ramsammy explained, noting that people have debated whether it is the Ministry of Health’s responsibility. “On the one hand, we are not supposed to be doing that…but we have also said that we have been picking up people over the years,” he explained.
He said that the Ministry’s programme differs from what the Human Services Ministry is doing with respect to street people, adding that it was initiated following requests from members of the public. “People need care and we are trying to do that…from day one we had no authority to do what we are doing, but we still do it,” he said.
He continued that there are many seriously sick people that are in need of institutional care. He said too that some patients would “slip out.”
Commenting on Vieira’s case, which he said the ministry is investigating, Ramsammy said that it represented some of the dangers associated with the programme. He noted that the system is currently overwhelmed.
Sources from the NAPH had told Stabroek News that Vieira and some of the other patients insisted that they did not belong there and wanted to go back to Georgetown. Around 11 am two Saturdays ago, Vieira reportedly “broke the ventilation and escaped” to a bushy area at the back of the building.
An alarm was raised but by the time staff got to the area to recapture him he had already disappeared among the bushes.
The sources added that the “ward is very crowded with the people that were brought from Georgetown and we don’t have adequate staff to monitor them.”
They said too that the “maids have to go to past the male ward to get to the washroom and they do not feel safe….” The sources said the institution needs more staff but noted that “with the condition here it is hard for persons to be attracted to the jobs.”
