Vilshany. Psychiatry: beyond life (PHOTOS)

In November 2017, an announced monitoring visit to Vilshany Psychiatric Hospital was conducted with the participation of the employees of the Department for Implementation of the National Preventive Mechanism of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights Irina Sergienko and Anastasiya Kluga, the regional representative of the Commissioner in Transcarpathian region Diana Shvardak, the Regional Coordinator for Public Relations of the Commissioner in Transcarpathian region Oleg Grigoriev and public monitor Tetyana Matola.

The psychiatric hospital is designed for 200 beds and consists of three wards – women, men and general psychiatric with concomitant tuberculosis. At the time of the visit, there were 191 patients in the hospital.

The hospital is 45 kilometers from the district center in the mountains at an altitude of 465 meters above sea level.This causes inconvenience in transport communication, and as a consequence, limited communication of patients with relatives, especially those who live outside the district.

One of the main problems of the Vilshany Psychiatric Hospital is that there are many patients in the hospital, who have been treated for many years: some of the patients have lost family ties, some have been abandoned by relatives, some have no place to return to. However, it is impossible to send them to boarding institutions because of the lack of documents.

"Psychiatric hospital is a medical institution where patients can stay for up to 6 months. Many patients have been living in the hospital for years, although there are boarding schools for people with chronic mental disorders in the region. For example, there is an unknown person in the hospital, who has been staying there since 1968", – Oleg Grigoriev said.

The rooms are crowded, there are 18 beds in one room standing close to each other. The aisles between the rows of beds are too narrow and you can only move around sideways. The mattresses and pillows on the beds are very old.

 Toilets are in a poor condition (dirty floor and tile, worn leaking pipes).

Following the visit, the Commissioner’s reports will be prepared and sent to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration.

Source.