
By The Star Staff
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has assigned over $122 million to the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration (ASSMCA by its initials in Spanish), to repair the Ponce Forensic Psychiatry Hospital, a mental health service center that provides medical-legal evaluation to people with mental disorders who have been involved in the island criminal justice system.
“This hospital is vital in the evaluation of people with mental health conditions, and it is essential that it operates in optimal conditions to provide adequate care,” said FEMA Infrastructure Division Director Al Gómez Rivera. “With this allocation of funds, FEMA reaffirms its commitment to the recovery of specialized facilities that offer essential services for mental health patients.”
The hospital serves people with possible mental disorders who face criminal proceedings and whose suitability -- that is, the ability to understand the proceedings against them and cooperate with their defense -- must be determined by a doctor specializing in psychiatry. The hospital’s mental health service center is the only one in Puerto Rico with an exclusive area for women.
The ASSMCA’s other facility that provides treatment and accommodates mental health patients who are facing or awaiting legal proceedings is the Forensic Psychiatry Hospital of Río Piedras, with capacity for about 100 male patients. The Ponce hospital, the larger of the two, has 125 spaces, of which 26 are for women and 99 for men. The minimum admission age is 18 years.
To ensure the well-being of patients, it is vital that the hospital has backup systems for essential water and electricity services. To that end, FEMA included among the hospital’s repairs the provision of a drinking water cistern and an electrical generator, and installed an alternative energy system. The construction project includes phases that have already been completed, such as the electrical infrastructure, lighting, security gates and the building’s air conditioning systems.
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