- Moves to expand access, strengthen crisis response
KINGSTON, Jamaica. Tuesday, June 10, 2025 – Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, MP, has announced a comprehensive package of initiatives to improve mental health services islandwide.
The Minister made the disclosure during his Sectoral Presentation in Parliament earlier today (June 10, 2025), noting that the goal is to provide
better access to care, but also to promote stronger community support, and realise a coordinated national vision for mental health and well-being.
The measures include:
- accelerating the recruitment of psychiatrists to fill vacancies nationwide in order to improve service coverage and wait times for assessment and treatment;
- further expanding Community Mental Health Services with the addition of mental health officers and psychiatric nursing aides for better early intervention and ongoing support in homes, schools, and communities; as well as
- establishing Psychiatric Emergency and Maintenance Teams for enhanced rapid response during psychiatric crises to improve safety, reduce hospitalisation and safeguard continuity of care to the patient.
Work is also to be progressed on the development of a National Mental Health Policy as well as the strengthening of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Disasters.
These reforms come at a time of rising demand for mental health services.
“The impact of COVID-19, which evidence suggests, has seen an increase in mental health challenges, has underscored the need to do more. Globally and locally, there has been a marked increase in mental health challenges,” Dr. Tufton said.
“In response, we must continue to build and sustain an enabling environment, one that protects mental wellness, ensures access to care and furthers public understanding while dismantling stigma,” the Minister added.
According to Dr. Tufton, the new measures build on existing gains over recent years.
“Across Jamaica, mental illness has been a source of stigma and misunderstanding. We have, however, begun to chip away at entrenched stigma, deepen public understanding and confront the culture of silence that too often surrounds mental health,” the Minister said, adding that the island
had been able to do so through a variety of interventions.
Counted among them are:
- the addition of 14 buses to the Community Mental Health Service, improving mobility and outreach;
- expansion of training for psychiatric nursing aides which has enhanced frontline capacity; and
- the creation of some 15 new posts for general psychiatrists, child psychiatrists and psychologists, geared at strengthening the human resources in mental healthcare.
These efforts have been complemented by, among other things:
- the launch of the Ministry’s Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Helpline, 888-NEW-LIFE, which has seen an uptick in the number of calls received from 888 in the first year (2019) of operation to 2,944, a near 70 per cent (69.84%) rise, in 2024;
- the ongoing #DoYourShare anti-stigma mental wellness campaign;
- the introduction of the School Mental Health Literacy Programme and Problem Management Plus; as well as
- the opening of a Wellness Centre for children and adolescents in Western Jamaica, done in collaboration with the Ministry of National Security.
“The progress is real, but so is the need. We must remain steadfast in our commitment to a mental health service that is accessible, responsive, and compassionate. Together, we can build a Jamaica where mental wellness is a right, not a privilege, and where no one has to suffer in silence,” the Minister told Parliament.