The island’s psychiatric hospital will mark the International Day of People with Disabilities next week with a motorcade through Hamilton.

The Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute motorcade will leave the Devonshire hospital on December 3 and head for the city.

LeRoya Hardtman, the supervisor of the Bermuda Hospitals Board’s intellectual disabilities department, said: “We encourage the public to be as colourful and as noisy as possible cheering our motorcade of clients and staff as they travel their route.

“The clients truly enjoy the attention. Please bring your whistles and other noise makers, pom-poms or other shows of support.”

Morrisa Rogers, the department’s clinical director, added: “The theme this year is fighting for rights in the post-Covid era.

“To this end we will be continuing to work with the ministry on developing a national intellectual disabilities plan that outlines how we can support those with intellectual disabilities and their families.”

The motorcade, which will have a police escort, will leave the MWI at 11am next Friday.

MWI patients will decorate many of the vehicles.

Tinee Furbert, the Minister of Social Development and Seniors, backed the event.

She said: “I join BHB in encouraging the public to come out and cheer on the motorcade.

“The greater the numbers, the greater the show of support and the happier the clients and staff will be.

“Please make a note of the route and plan to be on it.”

The full route of the motorcade is:

DepartNew Dimensions at MWI at 11am. Turn right on Hermitage Road. Past Elliott School. Right on Middle Road. Past Somersfield Academy. Turn right on to Barker’s Hill, left on to Palmetto Road, left to Old Military Road and past Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy. Turn right on to Palmetto Road then left on to Roberts Avenue to the K Margaret Carter Centre and stop in the yard.

From the K Margaret Carter Centre, the parade will turn left onto Frog Lane then right on to Happy Valley Road. Past Tomorrow’s Voices. Turn left on King Street, right on Reid Street, left on Front Street to Par-La Ville Road. Left on Church Street. Past the ageing and disabilities department offices. Turn on to Cedar Avenue to Elliot Street. Past Dellwood Middle School. Left on Parsons Road to Montpelier Road. Left to Middle Road down Flora Duffy Way – the former Corkscrew Hill. Past the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on Point Finger Road and right on to South Road and back to MWI.