Minister of Health Dr. Christopher Tufton says, Jamaica has a major mental health problem, as 70 percent of those with mental illnesses refuse to reveal the issues that affect them to their psychiatrists.

Dr. Tufton says, based on a mental health and homeless report, 30 percent of the Jamaican population experience some level of mental illness, which is very startling for any developed country to deal with.

He says this further complicates the problems the country faces, because without information, medical staff cannot apply effective counselling and treatment towards rehabilitation.

Dr. Tufton says, as part of broader measures to fix the country’s mental health problems, the ministry will be pooling resources supported by data to stimulate the wider society around the need to solve the issue of mental illnesses.

He was speaking at the annual conference of the psychiatric nursing aide of Jamaica at the Iberostar Hotel in Montego Bay, St. James yesterday (Oct 26).