Portland rehab centre struggling to get past stigma

Port Antonio, Portland

The Portland Rehabilitation Centre, which is currently undergoing a transformation, is still grappling with the stigma around a view that its primary focus is to house persons of unsound mind even though the success rate in transforming the lives of its residents is high.

Carla Gulotta, principal director of the Portland Rehabilitation Centre at Folly Road in the parish, told The Gleaner recently that improvements have been made at the facility and that it is now able to cater for approximately 40 residents who are fed, cared for, and taught life skills.

According to Gulotta, the facility has its struggles as it grapples with the negative comments coming from the community, which has cast a dark shadow on the institution and its operations.

“I am grateful for all the help that we have been getting. This facility is for the homeless and people with mental challenges. But it is not only a shelter as we are on a quest to rehabilitate people,” she said.

“It is not only a shelter. We rehabilitate, but it is being stigmatised. These people here went through trauma, other mental challenges, rejection, poverty, and abandonment. We work with them with the idea of rehabilitating them as much as we can. Some of them go to school, and some of them have gotten jobs. They get engaged, and they are motivated, and we are doing all of this so as to help them to go back to their homes and also to go back into society.

Seeing the success

“They come here because they felt abandoned, and here we offer them opportunities to get their lives back up and running. It has been a challenge, but we are seeing the success. We are grateful to the parish council (Portland Municipal Corporation) and other donors for providing food. We have a garden where we grow vegetables, and we also have a small chicken farm, a goat pen with goats, and rabbits,” she added.

Residents at the rehabilitation centre have been kept active in farming and other activities while engaging in training through the HEART Trust. So far, one resident has managed to secure meaningful employment in Port Antonio, where he is now able to earn from the skills taught to him and provide financial support to his children.

In the meantime, Centre Manager Krista-Gay, whose role is to take care of the residents, supervise staff members, and manage the day-to-day affairs of the centre, pointed out that the main challenges affecting the institution are a lack of donors and a lack of help from the community, which is further compounded by the stigma attached to the facility.

“When persons hear about the Portland Rehabilitation Centre, the stigma is ‘It is the mad house’. And we are no mad house,” she said.

“My view on a mad person would be somebody out there eating out of the garbage bin. And my residents here are not doing that. We have persons here that are trained through HEART Trust, and HEART Trust would not train a mad person. We need more persons out there to be educated. I think we need more persons out there to be educated, and if they get [to understand] what it is like here, they would get a better appreciation and understanding.

“When residents here apply for a job, they have to put a Folly Road address in Port Antonio because once the address is that of the rehab centre, they will not be employed. So the stigma is also affecting the residents. They do farming in various crops including pepper, pak choy, tomato, and corn. And they grow them on their own. But we need help, so instead of growing broilers, we probably raise chickens to get eggs. This is like another home for these residents, “she concluded.

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