Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton is facing criticisms over a response from his X account to journalist Zahra Burton stating, \u201cYou need mental health therapy! I hope you seek it!\u201d following her comment about his recent national honour. <\/p>\n
The October 20 post was in reply to Burton\u2019s comment on a post by an X user showing Tufton after he received the national honour, the Order of Distinction (Commander), at a ceremony on Monday. Burton wrote, \u201cClassic Jamaica. Classic. Just incredible. Lol.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tufton has been criticised by some online users. \u201cUncouth response,\u201d one person stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a Dr not so qualified to diagnose; with a seeming delusion grade inability to tell right from wrong; and responsibility for \u2018destigmatizing\u2019 and \u2018unweaponising\u2019 mental illness; who imported the bench but not the wellness. Irony abounds,\u201d posted Dr Deborah Hickling Gordon, former Opposition PNP Spokesperson on Culture.<\/p>\n
Another user said: “Yes, of course. Perpetuate the stigma Mr Health Minister. The minister of the people. Amazing Job. Bravo.”<\/p>\n
“This is not acceptable,” added another. <\/p>\n
Some persons seemingly agreed with Tufton. \u201cWellness bench for a start,\u201d one user said.<\/p>\n
One account added: “Tufton a bad boy eno.”<\/p>\n
The post remains on the account @christufton. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday morning, Tufton posted on X that he has \u201cexperienced\u201d hostility online, accompanied by a photo of himself sitting on a wellness bench, a concept used by his ministry as a symbol for safe spaces and as a tool to promote communication about mental wellness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people face constant hostility or provocation online, it takes a toll. I have seen it and experienced it. But I still believe we can rise above it. We all need to protect our peace, take care of our mental health, and choose empathy, even in disagreement,” the post said. <\/p>\n
Burton grabbed attention in July 2020 when she asked Tufton at a ministry news conference if he had cheated on his wife with any of the principals of Market Me, a marketing and public relations company.<\/p>\n
An agitated Tufton told Burton that it was \u201cnone of your business.\u201d<\/p>\n
The official presentation of Tufton\u2019s national award followed the October 7 release of an Integrity Commission report in which he was criticised for his actions surrounding the ministry\u2019s engagement of Market Me for the physical fitness campaign, Jamaica Moves.<\/p>\n
Tufton and Lyndsey McDonnough, co-managing director of the company, failed to declare their “friendship” while her company received nearly $80 million across 15 contracts – 14 from the from the health ministry and one from the National Family Planning Board, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Director of Investigations Kevon Stephenson said that while there was no evidence Tufton directly influenced the award of the contracts, Tufton\u2019s statements to staff suggesting that Market Me \u201cbe involved in all PR matters related to the Office of the Minister\u201d could be reasonably interpreted \u201cto have indirectly influenced the engagement of Market Me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report said the minister \u201cappeared to have advanced a private interest which resulted in a monetary benefit to Market Me Consulting Limited,\u201d and that his introduction of the company and its principals to ministry officials \u201cgave rise to, at its lowest, a perceived conflict of interest and thereby contravened the principles of transparency and good governance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tufton welcomed the report, noting that it clarified \u201cthe facts and put to rest years of speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow The Gleaner on X and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com<\/a> or editors@gleanerjm.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton is facing criticisms over a response from his X account to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[134,554,555,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-95015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}