Holy Name Convent launches care unit

In re­sponse to re­cent con­cerns raised with­in its com­mu­ni­ty about prin­ci­pal Sis­ter Re­nee Hall, Holy Name Con­vent Port-of-Spain has an­nounced the es­tab­lish­ment of an In­de­pen­dent Re­view Com­mit­tee and a Pro­fes­sion­al Care Unit. The Board of Man­age­ment out­lined the steps be­ing tak­en to en­sure trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty, and emo­tion­al sup­port dur­ing this pe­ri­od.

The In­de­pen­dent Re­view Com­mit­tee will op­er­ate sep­a­rate­ly from both the Board and the school ad­min­is­tra­tion. Its man­date in­cludes re­view­ing sub­mis­sions, iden­ti­fy­ing re­cur­ring themes, con­duct­ing in­ter­views, and pre­sent­ing find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions to the Board. The com­mit­tee is chaired by Vin­cent Pereira, a sea­soned gov­er­nance and lead­er­ship pro­fes­sion­al. He is joined by at­tor­ney Raphael Ajod­hia, re­tired prin­ci­pal Paula Moses, cor­po­rate ex­ec­u­tive and at­tor­ney Frances Bain-Cum­ber­batch, and clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist Isol­de Ali Ghent-Gar­cia. To­geth­er, they bring ex­per­tise in law, ed­u­ca­tion, gov­er­nance, and men­tal health.

The Board ex­pressed grat­i­tude to the pro­fes­sion­als for their will­ing­ness to con­tribute to what it de­scribed as an im­por­tant process. The com­mit­tee’s in­de­pen­dence is in­tend­ed to fos­ter con­fi­dence in the fair­ness and con­fi­den­tial­i­ty of the re­view.

Ac­knowl­edg­ing the emo­tion­al im­pact of re­cent pub­lic dis­cus­sions, the Board al­so an­nounced the cre­ation of a Pro­fes­sion­al Care Unit. This unit will pro­vide psy­cho­log­i­cal and emo­tion­al sup­port to stu­dents, fac­ul­ty, staff, par­ents, and oth­er mem­bers of the school com­mu­ni­ty. Im­por­tant­ly, it will func­tion in­de­pen­dent­ly of the re­view com­mit­tee and will not en­gage in in­ves­tiga­tive work. In­stead, its role is to of­fer con­fi­den­tial care to those who wish to ac­cess it.

The Samar­i­tan Move­ment, led by Fr. Ger­ard J. Mc­Glone, S.J., Ph.D., has been en­gaged to pro­vide these ser­vices. Mc­Glone and his team bring ex­per­tise in trau­ma, loss, clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gy, spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, and cul­tur­al­ly root­ed heal­ing prac­tices. The Board em­pha­sized that par­tic­i­pa­tion in these ser­vices will be vol­un­tary and con­fi­den­tial.

To fa­cil­i­tate the re­view, Lu­cent Re­search of Tu­na­puna has been con­tract­ed to man­age sub­mis­sions. Com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers are in­vit­ed to share con­cerns or ex­pe­ri­ences through a con­fi­den­tial on­line por­tal. The por­tal will re­main open un­til Ju­ly 10, 2026, af­ter which the com­mit­tee will con­tin­ue its work and pre­pare a re­port for the Board be­fore the start of the Sep­tem­ber school term.

The Board en­cour­aged re­spect­ful en­gage­ment with the process, un­der­scor­ing its com­mit­ment to in­de­pen­dence and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. By com­bin­ing struc­tured re­view with pro­fes­sion­al care, Holy Name Con­vent aims to ad­dress com­mu­ni­ty con­cerns while sup­port­ing the well-be­ing of those af­fect­ed.

The com­mit­tee has opened a con­fi­den­tial com­plaints por­tal for peo­ple wish­ing to sub­mit con­cerns and in­for­ma­tion as part of an in­de­pen­dent re­view in­to al­le­ga­tions and ex­pe­ri­ences shared by mem­bers of the school com­mu­ni­ty and the wider pub­lic.

The Board is en­cour­ag­ing mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty to use the for­mal process and al­low the com­mit­tee and Pro­fes­sion­al Care Unit to car­ry out their work in­de­pen­dent­ly.

The con­fi­den­tial sub­mis­sion por­tal can be ac­cessed here: https://www.dooblo­cawi.com/client/Sur­vey.as­px?Tick­et=APOOWT4R

The por­tal will re­main open un­til Ju­ly 10, af­ter which the In­de­pen­dent Re­view Com­mit­tee will con­tin­ue its work and pre­pare a re­port for the Board of Man­age­ment be­fore the start of the Sep­tem­ber school term.