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REMARKS BY THE HON. FRED MITCHELL MP
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE
Sandilands Month 15th November
2005
I am pleased to be here this morning to
make these few remarks of support for the month of activities in which
you are engaged. Sandilands is a part of the Fox Hill community that I
have the honour to represent. In fact, I have often said that the people
of Fox Hill see Sandilands as an important employer for the village: its
sons and daughters. They can stay near home as they earn their daily
bread. Hundreds of Fox Hill citizens over the years have worked at
Sandilands and they appreciate its role in the development and life of
their community.
On a more general plain, the Sandilands
Rehabilitation Centre is at the centre of the organized and
institutional efforts in The Bahamas from the public sector to preserve,
maintain and when necessary restore the mental health of the people of
The Bahamas. It also serves as a home of last resort for the elderly in
one of its divisions. It is an important institution.
It is clear that mental health is an
integral part of the success of any work force. But while we do pay some
attention to the physical health of our work force, we often overlook
the fact that full health requires both physical and mental health. It
is certain that much of what we suffer today in terms of lack of
productivity, loss of physical health, and damage to our quality of life
comes from the fact that there is not a sufficient recognition of the
need to maintain health lifestyles, both physical and mental.
In fact, good mental health invariably
leads to good physical health. The two are very much intertwined and
interrelated. Just as not having enough food can undercut the cognitive
development of children, and impair the judgments of adults, so can the
lack of good mental health cause physical harm to the body.
One example that has been raised in the
last few weeks is the inability of so many our people, particularly
young men manage anger. The police report that 52 per cent of the
homicides reported over the five-year period from 1999 to 2004 were
caused by arguments. That means, put another way, that scores of people
would have been alive today, if the person who perpetrated their murders
would have been able to manage their anger, control their tempers and
resolve their conflicts without regard to violence.
There is also no doubt that The Bahamas
suffers from drug abuse and alcoholism. But while drug abuse is the
issue that gets the publicity, alcoholism is very much the silent
killer. But its affects are obvious. It is often exacerbates the
problems of schizophrenia and depression. We all know how our
neighbourhoods are affected by people who have underlying mental
illnesses who will not take their medications and get treatment for
their underlying disease because they are crippled by alcohol abuse.
There needs to be a nation drive drawing
attention to the issue of alcoholism. Alcoholism leads to liver disease,
kidney failure. It worsens the problems of diabetes not only by the
physical effects of unregulated sugar consumption, but by sapping the
mind of the will to live, and carrier on and conduct normal family
lives. And imagine growing up in the home of an alcoholic, how it ruins
the quality of family life and saps the ability of mothers and fathers
to go to work to raise their children and generally care for their
families.
I know well about alcoholism because many
people in my own antecedent family have suffered from the ravages of the
disease. I often went with my father as a little boy as he tried to
encourage a sibling or a cousin to rehabilitate himself through the work
of Alcoholics Anonymous, which met then at St. Agnes Church hall in
Grants Town. But despite his best efforts, eventually his sibling or
cousin succumbed to the disease. And one of the difficulties is that
alcoholism runs in families, so the fathers pass it on to the sons and
to the daughters.
Going to the AA meetings, and watching
family members die from liver disease and kidney failure, I myself
stopped drinking on my thirtieth birthday the 5th October
1983. I determined that even though I did to have a problem, looking
back at what I had seen of the previous generation, I was not going to
take that chance. I am not evangelical about it. It was my own quiet
decision. And you know what came about in the result is that as a man in
public life, the public can rest assured of the soberness of my
judgments at all times. It helps with your productivity and your well
being.
But I am quite open minded about it,
those who can exercise that choice to drink should know that as a choice
it is always to be done in moderation. And there are thousands in The
Bahamas who are able to manage alcohol consumption without an issue, but
our society has to help those who can't to cope with their illness,
bring them back to a whole life, and then come to accept them back as
full functioning members of society.
That is just my personal two cents this
morning for what I think is an important, month of activities for an
important institution. I hope that it goes on from strength to
strengthen. Particularly for the people of Fox Hill. As a matter of
fact, if you could allot me four jobs at Sandilands this morning, I have
some people in Fox Hill whoa re ready, willing and able to take them up
today.
But I thank you all the same for your
kind invitation to come this morning, and I wish you well.
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