Calls Grow for National Regulation of Jamaica’s Funeral Home Industry

Jamaica’s funeral home sector needs urgent regulation to protect grieving families and public health, according to Marion Mitchell, chairman of the Manchester Municipal Corporation’s Health Committee, and Calvin Lyn, president of the Jamaica Association of Certified Embalmers and Funeral Directors.

Lyn said attempts to bring formal oversight to the industry date back to the late 1980s, when an association was created to lobby the Government. He said funeral directors later revived the effort in the 1990s, and that renewed pressure came around 2016 and 2017 as the number of untrained and unregulated operators increased.

He argued that some persons can register a company, rent a small space and vehicles, and begin offering funeral services without meeting clear minimum standards. Lyn said trained funeral directors and mortuary science practitioners view the work as a dignified profession that requires skill in caring for the dead and supporting families.

The discussion pointed to a 2019 report in which Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton acknowledged weak regulation and delays. Lyn said a draft regulation had been signed in August 2014 by then minister Dr Fenton Ferguson and technocrats. He said industry representatives later met health officials and Minister Tufton, including at a March 10, 2020 meeting at Kimana’s Gardens, where amended draft rules were circulated.

Mitchell said the matter has appeared on municipal order papers since he became a councillor in 2016, but no enforceable rules have followed. He said funeral homes continue to open across Jamaica, creating concerns about sanitation, transportation, storage, release of bodies and misidentification. He cited cases in which the wrong body reportedly arrived at funerals.

Both men called for a regulatory body, annual inspections, complaint channels, disciplinary measures, and standards requiring proper premises, trained personnel and public health compliance. They said the Ministries of Health and Local Government must work together so reputable operators are protected while unsafe practices are addressed.