By Kisean Joseph
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Antigua and Barbuda is facing a mental health crisis that continues to be met with surface-level responses rather than real solutions, according to Khalid Shabazz, whose son Rashawn was a known mental health patient.
Speaking on record, Shabazz said the country repeatedly offers temporary fixes to serious social problems without addressing their root causes.
“I think we’re at a crisis when it comes to mental health in our society,” Shabazz said. “We provide around here a lot of surface, window-dressing type of solutions, and then we don’t get to the very heart and the very core of the problems that we’re facing. It seems like we’re okay with promises, and it’s unfortunate.”
Shabazz said authorities routinely raise public expectations around solutions to mental health and justice issues, only for those promises to go unfulfilled.
“They talk this up in the media and they sensationalize these issues. And then we talk about it for a little while and we get no real solution,” he said.
According to Shabazz, magistrates had, on more than one occasion, ordered his son transferred to Clarevue Psychiatric Hospital for treatment, including an order allegedly made by the late Magistrate Conliffe Clarke following a previous shooting incident involving Rashawn. Shabazz said his son was later released from Clarevue after a new head of the facility said it was no longer able to house patients for extended periods due to a lack of space, and that his son subsequently relapsed after becoming non-compliant with his medication.
Shabazz said the risk posed by untreated, aggressive mental health patients in public spaces is a matter of serious public concern.
“There’s been too much issues with mental health patients, especially those who are aggressive,” he said. “It is unwise for us to have them in the public space, especially if we know that if they don’t take their medication, there’s a possibility of an incident or incidences.”
Shabazz said he has not been contacted by relevant authorities regarding his son’s case, despite reaching out. He said a committee has since been formed to press for a full and comprehensive report into the matter.
“We want to make sure that we go out there and show the authorities that we gave them a job,” Shabazz said. “They don’t operate in isolation by themselves. They’re not the lord and the masters over us. We gave them a mandate, and they have to be able to fulfill their mandate. If they cannot, they have to leave.”
Shabazz: Mental Health Crisis Demands More Than ‘Surface-Level’ Solutions
