A grand Christmas party was held for clients of the St. Lucia National Mental Wellness Centre last Friday. Staff of the Wellness Centre treated patients to gifts and a special lunch, allowing them to experience the love and joy of the Christmas season.
The Mental Wellness Centre was buzzing with laughter, music and excitement as clients and staff celebrated their biggest Christmas party ever. Occupational Therapist at the St. Lucia National Mental Wellness, Jane Charles, was the main organizer of this Christmas activity.
“Every year, the National Mental Wellness Centre hosts a Christmas party for the patients. However, we wanted it to be bigger and greater. We got a few sponsors and so I came up with the idea of having every staff member adopt a patient for the day. In so doing, they were supposed to buy them a gift that would be presented to them on the day of the party.”
The Occupational Therapist was pleased with the level of involvement by both staff and clients.
“The staff participated, the patients were excited, as most of them received gifts and we found that very important because we really wanted to increase interaction between the staff and the patients. We felt that it would help improve the patients’ overall well-being.”
Charles reminded the public not to ignore their mentally-ill family members and friends during the festive season as it goes hand in hand with therapy.
“I would really appeal to persons who have patients with mental illness to pay them a visit. The patients don’t need very much — just a visit, talk to them. I am not even saying to buy them a gift; just to spend time with them is what they would require right now.”