Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

The Mental Hospital – Medical Department for Some, Asylum for Others!

November 2, 2005

The Mental Hospital – Medical Department for Some, Asylum for Others!

Renovation of the Surami Mental Clinic is almost finished, but the prevalent unsanitary conditions make the stay there almost impossible. In spite of it, many patients still live in the hospital. The mental clinic is a medical department for part of the inmates and an asylum for others. The state does not seem to guarantee the rights of these citizens in accordance with the constitution.

Where and how do mentally disabled people live? Does the state care for them? Why is the mental clinic transformed into an asylum for a number of inmates? How does the head of the clinic explain the reigning unsanitary conditions in the mental house? What amount of money does the state reserve per patient and is it enough or not? Are the rights of mentally disabled people violated?

A multitude of problems exists in the mental clinic. Most striking though, are the prevailing unsanitary and abnormal living conditions. The management of the Alexander Kajaia Surami Mental Clinic says that, on average, an amount of 15 GEL is needed per patient per day. Only 6.70 GEL is made available by the state. This sum is used for food, clothes, drugs and salaries for the medical personnel. Adding up to this, the state owes money to the mental hospital from 1996 onwards. Despite the fact that the period of treatment in the hospital varies from 3 to 6 months, the mental clinic is transformed into an asylum for a number of people.

Integration of the patients into society is another big problem. No team of social workers exists in the clinic. According to information gathered by the Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs does not even have a plan or strategy for combating this problem.

Lawyer Giga Giorgadze, who works on the rights of mentally disabled people, says that the money reserved in the budget covers only isolation expenses, not treatment. “The amount of money provided is insufficient for life and treatment. This is why mentally disabled people quite often do not receive any medical attention. Such is in violation of Article 37 of the Georgian Constitution, which provides that mentally disabled people should be treated according to high standards,”- said Giorgadze. He also mentioned cases of inhuman treatment and brutality, which often take place in mental hospitals. “This is a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights”, - Giorgadze added. It was very much noticeable in the Surami Mental Clinic; while the patients themselves mostly worked on the renovation of the hospital, the administration did not regard them with the necessary respect, but downgraded them conversely.

As no monitoring group exists that can control the processes in the mental clinics, this topic remains closed and impenetrable.

News