Psychiatrists Dr. Jatinder Kour (left) and Dr. Sachin Gandotra.
PHILIPSBURG--Dr. Sachin Gandotra and Dr. Jatinder Kour, who have eight years of service to Mental Health Foundation (MHF) under their belts, have decided to further develop their skills in the United Kingdom (UK). The MHF staff, board, partners and stakeholders gathered at Holland House Beach Hotel last week Saturday evening for a farewell party for Gandotra. Kour already left for the UK in November 2018.
During the gathering, MHF looked back on developments and accomplishments over the years and thanked Gandotra and Kour for their efforts.
MHF was looking for a psychiatrist towards the end of 2010 and the opportunity to employ a psychiatrist from India arose at a global conference for psychiatrists in Germany. Among the many psychiatrists MHF had flown into St. Maarten over a period of two years for interviews, Gandotra was the only one prepared to take on the job.
He took up the job of developing a mental health facility start-up, for which he left the renowned Central Institute of Psychiatry in Ranchi, India.
After the board signed the contract with Gandotra, it was MHF Director Eileen Healy’s difficult task to bring knowledge and cultures together. But professionalism, high standards and team efforts made things work for eight years, which is much longer than either had anticipated.
In those eight years Dr. Gandotra helped MHF to add admissions and crisis intervention to its existing care products of mobile psychiatric home care and Faraja day treatment and clinic care. Additionally, Anguilla has psychiatric care now too.
Psychogeriatric care for people with dementia commenced at the White and Yellow Cross Care Foundation (WYCCF) for St. Martin’s Home that offers district nursing and day treatment for elderly people.
A care agreement with Mental Health Caribbean (MHC) for Saba and St. Eustatius was established and Gandotra contributed to the justice system by writing reports about forensic patients in prison or police custody.
Gandotra and Kour both significantly contributed to research by conducting several studies. For WYCCF, they studied the effects of coconut oil and dementia and researched the need for palliative care in St. Maarten. Due to this study, WYCCF is now developing palliative care for the terminally ill.
For the MHF, they studied the “patient’s profile” and “service utilisation” for the conference “Transforming Care” in October 2013. All studies were published in renowned international psychiatry magazines. Lastly, Gandotra learned to speak Dutch and obtained Dutch nationality during his tenure in St. Maarten.
At Gandotra’s farewell party, several friends and colleagues expressed their gratitude for all his efforts over the years. MHF Board President Dr. Felix Holiday said he appreciated all the efforts in developing the foundation to what it is today, as well as their personal friendship.
Dr. Albert van de Waag, who was instrumental in facilitating the studies through American University of the Caribbean (AUC) Medical School, also thanked Dr. Gandotra and Dr. Kour for their achievements and ongoing friendship.
Former MHF board member Dr. Michael Mercuur thanked Gandotra on behalf of the general practitioners and emphasised that he had learned “a lot” about psychiatry in the past years.
Gandotra thanked the board and the director, but mostly the staff that have “considerately contributed” to the development of providing quality care programmes for their clients today.
“Normally you enter into an established facility, but the MHF was a small, growing facility. Being part of that development is a valuable learning experience that I could not have had anywhere else in the world,” Gandotra said.
The MHF staff, patients, board and director thanked Dr. Gandotra and Dr. Kour for their “vast contribution in the development of psychiatry in St. Maarten. We wish them both much success in their new endeavours in the United Kingdom and hope they will return in the future,” it was stated.
