An army of volunteers is being organised to take Bermuda's homeless folk to a psychiatric clinic where they can receive mental health tests.

Yesterday the man behind the move -- Shadow Human Affairs Minister Ewart Brown -- appealed for volunteers.

"I'm looking for people who can take half an hour out of their day to transport homeless people to the mental health clinic. I'm going to take a few this week.'' Would-be volunteers should contact Dr. Brown at Bermuda Healthcare Services on 236-2810.

Dr. Brown, a physician, said he hoped the psychiatric tests would lead to treatment and employment for some.

The clinic is at the old hospital building in Point Finger Road, Paget. It is open 9 a.m-5 p.m., Monday to Friday.

The move follows talks between Dr. Brown and Chief of Psychiatry at St.

Brendan's Hospital, Dr. Hameen Markar.

Last week, Dr. Brown visited some of the Parsons Road homeless and this confirmed his suspicions some had psychological problems and needed to be in a structured environment.

Yesterday Sri Lankan born Dr. Markar told The Royal Gazette : "If we can get people to the clinic we can assess them.

"There are professionals in the clinic all the time. If people are referred to the clinic or walk in they will be assessed.

"Anybody can refer anyone to the clinic. You could do so if you wished.'' Dr. Markar added: "Basically, at this stage we are trying to work out what is the best way of approaching this.

"What we need to do is to find out how many people are homeless and what percentage have mental health problems.'' Dr. Markar said ideas on tackling homelessness were being looked into by a community mental health steering committee.

One suggestion was for an "open clinic'' one day in the month at a building in Hamilton.

"It would be like a drop-in centre.'' The idea of visiting the homeless on the streets had not been ruled out, although this presented huge practical problems, said Dr. Markar.

Dr. Markar and Programmes and Support Services director at St. Brendan's, Joan Dillas-Wright, said the Mental Health Act limited what they could do.

"We can't simply go rounding people up. You also have to respect people's human rights,'' said Dr. Markar.

People could only be compulsorily detained by mental health staff if they were considered a danger to themselves or others.

Under the legislation, someone could be held against their will for a maximum of 28 days following consultation between a family member, a mental welfare officer and a doctor.

The legislation also allowed detention for up to a year, with the consent of a family member of the patient.

The patient could appeal against detention, explained Dr. Markar.

Dr. Markar, who has argued the importance of "destigmatising'' mental illness, stressed homelessness was a community problem, which needed a "multi-agency approach''.

"We have a community health team which already visits the homeless at the Salvation Army,'' he said. "We have a senior nurse who goes there on a regular basis and provides treatment.'' The Corporation of Hamilton has stated one partial solution looked at for some time was a day-time centre where the homeless could spend leisure time and possibly receive some skills training. But no suitable building was available.

Yesterday Corporation secretary Roger Sherratt said one of the problems was high rents in the City.

"I guess the homeless tend to be drawn to the City. We do have problems with begging on the streets these days which is a cause for concern.

"Sometimes these people can be intimidating to women. We have had complaints from women about being accosted.

"We know that some of those begging are not homeless. They do have somewhere to stay.''