that benefits the mentally ill.

Speaking at Hamilton Rotary Club's weekly luncheon at Pier 6 Nightclub on Front Street, chairperson of St. Brendan's Amenities Committee Linda Trott said Bermuda's only psychiatric facility had activities, outings and basic necessities that could not be run on the hospital's limited budget.

"It then falls upon the community to provide for the shortfall,'' Mrs. Trott said.

"The overall aim of the Amenities Committee is to assist the nursing and therapeutic disciplines in enhancing the lifestyles and activities of the mentally ill and learning disabled clients through fundings and donations of equipment from the general public.'' She noted that the Amenities Committee, which formed in 1972 and soon afterwards became a registered charity, had a very low profile.

But she said the need to enlighten the community of its undertakings will become a focus of the committee in the next financial year. Adding that the needs of the committee's "customers'' had multiplied every year since its existence, Mrs. Trott said: "This has not been as a result of the quantity of requests, but the costs.'' During the last ten years the committee had disbursed an average of $30,000 a year.

She said to some that may seem like an insignificant amount, but the committee had held very few major events and a "minute percentage of Bermuda's population support'' its endeavours.