Carer abuse in psychiatric institutions

According to a new report, carer abuse exists in psychiatric facilities and institutions for the handicapped. According to the International Herald Tribune, a report released on Wednesday by Mental Disability Rights International, a U.S.-based human rights group, mentions cases such as that of a 21-year Down’s Syndrome sufferer who has been tied to his bed for 11 years. Carer abuse in psychiatric institutions It goes on to evoke scenes of half-naked children eating, urinating and deficating in their beds, and a seven-year old girl with brain damage being left untreated as “she’s going to die anyway“, not to mention many more. The report, to be published tomorrow, says that the above three cases are not the only examples of abuse and neglect in facilities for the mentally ill and handicapped in Serbia. It comes four years after a study of institutions that house, according to the paper, 17,200 children and adults. The report says that patients are exposed to filthy conditions and contagious diseases, and are suffering as a result of lack of medical care and rehabilitation. The institutions featured in the study include Kolevka Institute for Children and Youngsters in Subotica, the Institute for the Mentally Ill in Curug, the Institute for Children and Youngsters in Kulina, the Special Institute for Children and Youngsters in Stamnica and psychiatric hospitals in Vrsac and Kovin. Mental Disability Rights International Director Eric Rosenthal says that the sight of a child tied to its bed was the most terrible thing he had seen in his 14-year long career as an advocate of the handicapped. “We’re talking about the most awful torture of helpless children, who are tied to their beds and cannot move,“ said Rosenthal. The paper says that health representatives and hospital staff claimed in the report that certain patients had been tied up to prevent them from hurting themselves. Vladimir Pesic, who in the article is presented as a government official responsible for issues concerning both the mentally and physically handicapped, told the IHT that he did not wish to comment on the report, as he had not yet seen it. Rosenthal added that he hoped the report would encourage the EU to pressure Serbia into urgently undertaking measures to improve conditions in the aforementioned institutions.

Carer abuse in psychiatric institutions

It goes on to evoke scenes of half-naked children eating, urinating and deficating in their beds, and a seven-year old girl with brain damage being left untreated as “she’s going to die anyway“, not to mention many more.

The report, to be published tomorrow, says that the above three cases are not the only examples of abuse and neglect in facilities for the mentally ill and handicapped in Serbia.

It comes four years after a study of institutions that house, according to the paper, 17,200 children and adults.

The report says that patients are exposed to filthy conditions and contagious diseases, and are suffering as a result of lack of medical care and rehabilitation.

The institutions featured in the study include Kolevka Institute for Children and Youngsters in Subotica, the Institute for the Mentally Ill in Čurug, the Institute for Children and Youngsters in Kulina, the Special Institute for Children and Youngsters in Stamnica and psychiatric hospitals in Vršac and Kovin.

Mental Disability Rights International Director Eric Rosenthal says that the sight of a child tied to its bed was the most terrible thing he had seen in his 14-year long career as an advocate of the handicapped.

“We’re talking about the most awful torture of helpless children, who are tied to their beds and cannot move,“ said Rosenthal.

The paper says that health representatives and hospital staff claimed in the report that certain patients had been tied up to prevent them from hurting themselves.

Vladimir Pešić, who in the article is presented as a government official responsible for issues concerning both the mentally and physically handicapped, told the IHT that he did not wish to comment on the report, as he had not yet seen it.

Rosenthal added that he hoped the report would encourage the EU to pressure Serbia into urgently undertaking measures to improve conditions in the aforementioned institutions.