Residents are urged to learn more about mental illnesses such as schizophrenia to help break down the stigma and fear surrounding the conditions.

Experts made the plea yesterday as they launched the Island’s Mental Health Awareness Week, designed to educate the public and dispel myths.

This year’s theme is “living with schizophrenia”, highlighting the symptoms of the illness and the treatments available.

“More than any other mental illness, schizophrenia is something many fear,” said Health Minister Jeanne Atherden. “People with this condition not only have their individual illness to manage but have to struggle against the stigma of those around them.

“Rather than us fear what someone with schizophrenia might do to us, however, individuals with schizophrenia are actually much more at risk of being the victims, not the perpetrators, of violence and abuse. Their symptoms, when active, make them vulnerable, not dangerous.

“People with schizophrenia need our support, not our fear. It is the stigma and fear around schizophrenia and the dysfunction that is a consequence of active symptoms that can often prevent an individual from accessing the care they need.”

Dr Chantelle Simmons, chief of psychiatry at Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute (MWI), told The Royal Gazette that schizophrenia had a few classic symptoms that come under two categories, positive and negative.

Positive symptoms include changes in behaviour or thoughts, while negative covers a withdrawal or lack of function seen in a healthy person.

“Positive symptoms include experiences like delusions and hallucinations,” Dr Simmons said. “There are commonly auditory hallucinations, hearing voices that aren’t there, seeing things that might not be there.

“In rare cases people can have other experiences — they might believe the CIA has a plot against them so they barricade themselves in to protect them. Despite reassurances, they continue to believe that.

“They can have delusions that aren’t possible — something involving Martians, for example.

“Negative symptoms mean a person might have minimal conversation or won’t speak at all. They are not motivated to do anything, or may spend hours in bed.”

Dr Simmons said that schizophrenia could affect anyone, and that about 26 million people worldwide were sufferers.

Research indicates that between 0.7 and one percent of any population have the condition — about 450 to 600 people in Bermuda.

“MWI has a 24-hour service available if someone is worried that they might have symptoms,” Dr Simmons said. “You can call the acute clinic on the main hospital line.

“A concerned family member can call the acute clinic as a first step to find out what assistance is available. In most cases an individual has to volunteer for treatment unless they meet criteria under the Mental Health Act.”

The Act is the law under which a person can be committed to hospital involuntarily because a doctor believes they have a mental disorder and require in-patient assessment and treatment.

Dr Simmons said that schizophrenics “absolutely can lead a normal life” with treatment.

There is no cure but various options are available, including medication, therapy, vocational rehabilitation, peer support and community programmes.

Private psychiatry and psychologists are also available on the Island.

Dr Simmons also repeated the Health Minister’s statement that people living with schizophrenia were more vulnerable than dangerous.

“They are more likely to be the victim than the perpetrator of a crime,” she said.

Along with Dr Simmons and Ms Atherden, yesterday’s launch was attended by Patrice Dill, chief operating officer at MWI; Morrisa Rogers, chairperson of the Mental Health Awareness Committee and clinical manager of the Allied Health team at MWI; Venetta Symonds, chief executive officer of Bermuda Hospitals Board; and Canon James Francis.

Mrs Symonds said MWI was the “only place who can respond 24/7” to mentally ill patients in need.

“This week there are activities that will focus on mental health, in particular schizophrenia, but please be reminded that mental health services, the staff who deliver them and the people who use them deserve our understanding, support and attention all year round,” she added.

Events for Mental Health Awareness Week, which runs until Friday, include a Book Club at Bermuda National Library last night, at which Darryl Cunningham discussed his work Psychiatric Tales, which illustrates his experiences working on psychiatric and dementia wards.

The movie The Soloist, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr, about a cello prodigy who suffers from schizophrenia, will be screened at BUEI at 7pm tonight, while tomorrow there will be a talk about stigma and mental illness in the first floor conference room at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital from 1-2pm.

The Nelson Bascome soccer tournament will be in the Bermuda College gym from 6pm tomorrow, while on Friday the annual Mind Frame exhibition of art and photography takes place at Bermuda Society of Arts at City Hall from 5-7pm.

For more information about the events or mental illness, contact MWI on 236-3770.