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The intent behind the Virgin Islands Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Act will lead to a complete restructure of how the Virgin Islands treats mental health patients in the territory but it still has some areas that need addressing before it is ready to be voted on by the legislature and subsequently signed into a law. The Department of Health, The Department of Human Services, Virgin Islands Police Department, NAMI (National Alliance of Mental Illness) St. Croix Affiliate, VI Bar Association were among other stakeholders that spoke about what they would recommend being fixed before being finalized during a Health, Hospital and Human Services Senate Committee meeting on Friday.
Sherilyn Pogson, President, of NAMI St. Croix, stated in her testimony “Currently 1 in 5 adults in the United States experience a mental illness. That could be an estimated 20,000+ Virgin Islanders, that may need behavioral health care services.” and when asked if the Virgin Islands are in a mental health crisis by Senator Marvin Blyden she responded “Yes, absolutely we are in the middle of a crisis.”
The bill was sent down last year By Governor Albert Bryan and there is still work to be done to have it ready to become law and improve the lives of Virgin Islanders.
“I’m proud to submit this legislation, which is long overdue, so Virgin Islands residents who have mental illnesses or developmental disabilities and those in the community who suffer from alcoholism and drug addiction can get proper support,” Mr. Bryan said at that time he sent down the legislation over a year ago. “This comprehensive bill is an effort to restructure all behavioral and developmental disabilities provision into a cohesive structure in one place,”
Department of Human Services Commissioner Kimberly Causey-Gomez understood that there is work to be done and this hearing was a good place for important conversations to happen. She said “This is a really great start, it’s an enormous bill but it gives us a good platform, a good starting place so presenting it to this body even though it’s not in perfection or perfect for it’s still a good place to start with the discussion.”
Some of the areas of concern in the Mental Health Act that were expressed on Friday were the wording of the bill to reduce the negative stigma that already surrounds mental health, securing of the funding and law enforcement's role.
Department of Health Commissioner, Justa Encarnacion's proposed wording changes such as “Alcohol and Drug Dependency” to “Substance Use Disorder” and to discontinue the usage of terminology such as “addict” and “abuser,” as less stigma inducing, and biased terms should be utilized such as individuals/ persons living with substance use disorder, which implies no judgement or morality, and keeps the focus on the symptoms.
This area was also cited by Ms. Pogson. She said in her testimony “The entire document refers to individuals who “suffer” from disabilities over 70 times. This is contrary to current person-first language and should be eliminated from the document in its entirety and be replaced with “a person who has” terminology.”
On the issue of funds being available Ms. Encarnacion said in her testimony “In order to fully support the expansion of behavioral health services with the inclusion of neurodevelopmental disorders, the development of the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) and wrap around services to support the needs of the population an increase in funding is essential.”
Charlotte K. Perrell, President of the Virgin Islands brought up the potential issue with using revenues to fund such a large and important project. “Although this proposed bill was drafted before the COVID-19 pandemic, this past year has taught us that revenues, specifically casino revenues, are not consistent and can at times be non-existent.”
This proposed legislation allocates portions of the Casino Revenue Fund (21%), which is currently allocated to hospitals and health (15%), gambling addiction and education programs (1%), and the University of the Virgin Islands (5%) according to Ms. Perrell.
Ms. Encarnacion testimony recommended that all new hires of the V.I.P.D participate in Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) within their first year of being hired and all officers participate in this training biennially.
She explained “CIT training emphasizes a partnership between law enforcement, the behavioral health treatment system, behavioral health advocacy groups, and consumers of behavioral health services and their families. “
Mario Brooks, the assistant Commissioner of the V.I.P.D said that the department would “welcome any additional training.”
Attorney General Denise George stated that the proposed legislation unfairly places the A.G. with responsibility of the custody and care of mentally ill individuals because it will be “improper, impractical, and perhaps unlawful for any of these individuals to be placed in the Attorney General’s custody—even temporarily.” She further explained that the staff of the A.G. Office is not trained in this regard and they do not have positions with this scope of employment, it could expose staff to becoming witnesses in their own cases and they do not have the infrastructure to house the individuals.
Senator Blyden was thankful for the testimonies of the different agencies and said “The recommendations that were offered were on point, I want to thank the testifiers truly because they are on point but the only problem is communication, collaboration, and basically coming together.”
Senator Samuel Carrion shared the same thoughts “We definitely need to address this in a comprehensive way and in order to do so we need all hands on deck. It’s been clearly evident this morning by the testimony that unfortunately there is not good communication between different departments and agencies.”
Ms. Encarnacion understood what the Senators were saying and said in her closing statement “We are building a strong team and of course the services are so well needed throughout the territory, we appreciate the input of all involved today and it truly takes all of us to work together to make this possible.”
