The response from some in society has been to condemn the actions of Ms Felix and to question her motherly instincts. However, a significant number of people have, quite rightly, sympathized, empathized and pointed to her fragile mental state which would have been exacerbated by hormone-infused pregnancy and childbirth. Reports also indicated that persons had taken custody of Ms Felix’s two older children, a clear indication that she had been unable to care for them. Yet, Ms Felix went on to have a third child.
Ms Felix is not the first or only mentally ill woman to have given birth to several children and who has been unable to nurture them, but perhaps her case is the most tragic in recent times. Women in similar circumstances are invisible in plain sight all around this country. Few of them have family support and still live in homes; they are instead found living on the streets and like Ms Felix, perhaps more so, are taken advantage of. Their children either live with them on the streets or are sometimes taken in by relatives or institutionalized. Nor is this a recent problem; it has been with us for years and it seems despite promises and protests to the contrary it will, tragically, remain with us for years to come.
Three years ago, in January 2007, not for the first time, Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy announced that mental health would be a major aspect of his ministry’s plan for that year. As Dr Ramsammy outlined his ministry’s work plan, he talked, among other things, about a mental health policy, a mental health unit, mental health programmes at the Georgetown Public Hospital and upgrading the National Psychiatric Hospital at Berbice, integrating mental health into the primary health care system and a national suicide prevention committee.
In June last year, Dr Ramsammy again spoke about mental health occupying “priority space” on the national health agenda and about intensifying efforts to implement an ambitious strategic mental health plan. He referred to the collaboration between the Pan American Health Organisation the Inter-American Development Bank and Dalhousie University in the US, to enhance the delivery of mental health services as, “the most determined effort” to date in the work being undertaken in mental health. Minister Ramsammy has to know that the major sucking up to the donors that he was doing made a lie of his earlier pronouncements. Or perhaps he thought no one would remember his 2007 pledge.
Yes there have been moves to address the mental health issue. But as Dr Ramsammy unabashedly admitted last year, they have not been that determined. One of the fundamental issues still to be addressed in this area is the legislation that would protect the rights of people with mental illnesses and change the way they are helped, among other things, which brings us back to Ms Felix and other women like her.
Sex and sexuality in mental illness have so far not been on the radar here. Not that this is surprising considering where mental health – a supposedly priority issue – is. However, it is no secret that mentally ill women – and men also –have been sexually exploited and this has happened both in and out of institutions. Like rape, this is a crime. But key to successfully prosecuting such a crime would be establishing whether the mental patient is sufficiently competent to have a relationship or give consent for sex. Legislation is crucial to addressing this and nothing less than a most determined effort ought to be made.
