Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/952911
maltatoday SUNDAY 11 MARCH 2018 Interview 15 For all our advancement in equality and civil rights, it seems that mental health issues remain shrouded in fear and ignorance. DANIELA CALLEJA and STEPHANIA DIMECH SANT, operations and executive officers at the Richmond Foundation, argue that Malta is ready to overcome the stigma... but still needs to learn DC: It happens. I can't say that it doesn't happen. It does happen, and we have a service to help peo- ple to find and retain employment. Helping people with mental health problems to find a job isn't easy. But it's much better than it used to be. There are so many good organ- isations which take care of their employees... it is definitely on the rise. Until a couple of years ago, however, it was a lot harder. How does the law stand on cases like that? You can't legally fire an employee because of a physical disability, for instance... or because of skin-colour, or gender, etc. Surely it's the same with mental health? [Both together] Any form of dis- crimination is illegal... Perhaps, but to refer back to the case we mentioned: nothing seems to have happened... SDS: First of all, a lot of depends on what action the victim choos- es to take. If they don't choose to take it forward in a legal format... nothing's going to happen. It's not a crime the police would act upon independently. I am sure that there are many cases of discrimination that never came to light, because the victim prefers otherwise... Does the Richmond Foundation offer that kind of service, too? To take such cases forward? SDS: We try to help, yes. It is not within our remit to take any direct action in such cases; but we would help by trying to empower the victim. We would liaise with the Mental Health Commission, offer guidance, and so on. Meanwhile, to return to an earlier point: government has announced a reform of the mental health services, focusing on Mt Carmel Hospital. This might be an unfair thing to say: but Mt Carmel has almost come to be a metaphor for the stigma itself. The conditions are understood to be (or to have been) woefully substandard; and even the name – 'Frankuni' – sounds like something you'd say to frighten a little child. What is being done to rehabilitate the image of that hospital? SDS: The irony of the name is that it comes from 'Franconia', the name of the villa. And it's a beau- tiful name. Like so many other terms, we have somehow managed to corrupt that beautiful word and turn it into something frightening. Unfortunately, that perception still exists in many people's minds. Especially, I would say, the older generation. What's being done? Over the years, not nearly enough has ever been done at that hospi- tal. This, too, also reflects how we, as a society, look at that particular sector of our health services. As for the de-stigmatisation process: the Richmond Foundation is a co- founder of the Alliance for Mental Health: which brings together pro- fessionals in the sector, represent- ing patients. We have produced a position paper, outlining an array of initiatives that could be taken to improve the mental health sec- tor in general. The end target is to have a hospital which is within the precincts of the general hospital. That way, the issue would be treat- ed for what it is – a medical issue, like any other – and it would help to lessen the stigma. We have been pushing for that, and it seems that the idea has been picked up. We have been told that there are plans being drawn up for the develop- ment of this hospital, including the medical brief. We understand that there has been some progress on that front... Concurrently, we are also proposing that community services are beefed up: resourced better, given more investment... that there are more community mental health clinics, for example. And more social support services, which would enable people to con- trol and cope with their mental health conditions, without hav- ing to resort to hospitalisation. So things are moving, yes. But it's go- ing to take a while to catch up... PHOTO JAMES BIANCHI