Mental-health services take cut

MENTAL-HEALTH services has been hit by the Government's tight spending for the fiscal year 2011-2012.

The budgetary allocation to the country's two mental-health institutions has declined marginally.

Last year, the administration allocated a little more than $1.2 billion to deal with mental-health services.

This fiscal year, the amount allotted has dipped to a little more more than $1.1 billion.

Bellevue Hospital, the main mental-health institution in Jamaica, received a cut in its allocation from $1.2 billion for the 2010-2011 financial year to $1 billion this year.

The Kenneth Royes Centre, a halfway institution for clients who have been rehabilitated, received $74.5 million, about $3 million less than the $77.4 million spent by the institution in the last fiscal year.