The Monitoring Group of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) made a return visit without warning to Mukachevo neuropsychiatric clinic and once again revealed gross violation of human rights, abuse and exploitation of patients.
98 women and 19 men permanently live in the clinic, 50 of them were declared incompetent by a court. As the second visit proved, most flagrant violations, found during previous visits, had not been eliminated.
The monitors found out that the administration illegally isolates people with mental disorders in the basement with a metal bars. The monitors found four people there.
According to the patient, it is a common practice in the clinic.
Monitors were struck by the fact that on the order of the psychiatrist, the patients are prohibited to stay in their rooms or in their beds during daytime, so people spend days just sitting or walking in corridors.
"While talking with patients, almost all of them complained that after breakfast they get kicked out to the corridor or the TV room, not allowed to stay in their rooms or lie on their beds. It’s horrible when elderly people, which comprise more than half of the patients, sit in the corridor and are scared to come into the room. The administration claimed that when patients sleep during daytime, they bother other people at night" – an employee of the Ombudsman Office Department of NPM Anastasia Kluha said.
Patients of the clinic told the monitors that four of them permanently live and work at the farm, and even incapacitated people are forced to do agricultural work. Despite that fact that work therapy may harm them, the doctor prescribes them 4-5 hours of work. For this, they receive 10 to 70 UAH per month.
The management of the clinic could not explain why the incapable patients of the clinic, who have legal guardians, in violation of the law, sign official documents for social assistance.
The patients complained about bad food and said that they have to buy food for their own money. Also, they have to buy toilet paper and soap, while the clinic has toiletries in stock.
Of a particular concern is the fact that patients’ treatment regimens have not been adjusted for many years. Some of them have been taking the same dosage of strong psychotropic drugs for 10-13 years.
Individual rehabilitation programs for patients are implemented only on paper. The programs, that should be updated once in two years, have been the same for seven years.
"What we saw in Mukachevo neuropsychiatric clinic in Europe is considered abuse that borders on torture. The clinic is more like a prison rather than socio-medical institution for people with mental disorders," – the regional coordinator for public relations of the ombudsman in Transcarpathian region, Oleg Grigoryev said.
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