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ARMENIA: REPORT DETAILS PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL ABUSES
EurasiaNet.org
July 17 2014
July 17, 2014 - 3:20pm, by Marianna Grigoryan
During the Soviet era, Communist authorities occasionally had
dissidents committed to psychiatric hospitals as a way of keeping
them quiet. Times have changed, but rights activists in Armenia say
psychiatric hospitals are still occasionally being used and abused,
especially as a means of settling financial and other disputes among
friends and relatives.
"People can consider themselves absolutely normal, with no mental
disorders, but a single telephone call, a complaint filed by their
relatives, neighbors or other interested parties can lock them up
in a mental hospital for years, for an indefinite period of time,
through the joint efforts of police and emergency doctors," charged
activist Arthur Sakunts, chairperson of the Helsinki Citizens'
Assembly's center in the northern city of Vanadzor.
A Helsinki Assembly study of five state-run Armenian psychiatric
hospitals (four in the capital, Yerevan) reached this conclusion
after interviews with 316 hospital medical staff, directors, support
workers and patients. The findings have been presented to the Ministry
of Health, which reportedly has prepared a response, Sakunts said.
[Editor's Note: The Helsinki Assembly received funding from the Open
Society Assistance Foundation-Armenia to help produce the report. The
Armenian foundation is part of the Soros foundations network.
EurasiaNet.org operates under the auspices of a separate part of the
network, the Open Society Foundations in New York].
The story of 53-year-old Zhulieta Amarikian, a former patient at
Yerevan's Avan psychiatric hospital, illustrates the system's dangers.
After an argument over a Yerevan house they had inherited, Amarikian's
brother, Muraz, allegedly threatened last May to have his sister,
an individual with no previous mental-health issues, committed to
a psychiatric hospital. Police officers reportedly arrived the next
day, forced her into an ambulance and took her to Avan, according to
court papers.
"She is not sick," said researcher Marieta Temurian who met Amarikian
while working on the Helsinki-Aseembly report. "She suffered from the
atmosphere and conditions of the clinic, refused to take medication,
but the doctors tried to make her take the medicine and injected it
by force," Temurian said. With legal assistance from the Helsinki
Assembly, Amarikian petitioned a court for her release, and was
declared as mentally competent after an exam by a court psychiatrist.
She was released from the Avan facility after more than a month-long
enforced stay.
"I do not harm anyone. I just live quietly. I never had any problems,"
Amarikian, who is unemployed, told to EurasiaNet.org.
Amarkian claimed that her brother is still trying to have her
recognized as mentally incompetent. Under Armenia's civil code,
family members, legal guardians or the administration of a psychiatric
institution can request a court to recognize an individual as mentally
incompetent without the person in question having to appear in court.
Most of the hospitalized individuals included in the Helsinki
Assembly study are pensioners or, like Amarkian, are unmarried,
or live by themselves.
Amarkian's case is not unusual, according to Deputy Ombudsman Tatevik
Khachatrian, who said her office regularly receives phone calls about
such cases from concerned neighbors, or via letters from "a person in
danger." Conditions in psychiatric hospitals can worsen the situation.
Patients with no mental-health problems have been "tied up, faced
violence, gotten injections of drugs," she alleged. "People were
beaten with blankets covering their faces to avoid bruises."
The injections of psychotropic, sedative drugs "can affect [patients']
mental health, and after a month it's really hard to say whether the
person had mental problems or not," she added.
Armenian legislation can enable such abuse, critics say. Under a 2010
decree signed by then-prime minister Tigran Sarkisian, individuals
"subject to immediate hospitalization" who are brought to a medical
facility "by emergency psychiatric teams or their relatives" can
be hospitalized on the recommendation of the doctor on duty. An
examination by a "psychiatric commission" is required within 72 hours
of an involuntary admission, but, as a rule, studies show, physicians
from the hospital in question make up that commission.
That poses a potential conflict of interest, Khachatrian and Sakunts
believe: psychiatric hospitals receive 5,900 drams ($14.50) per day
from the state budget for the upkeep of each of their patients. In
a time of tight budgets, state-run hospitals have an incentive not
to release patients -- even if they were not committed for medical
reasons. Hospital directors could not be reached for comment.
The ombudsman's office cannot establish with certainty how often
individuals without mental-health problems are committed to psychiatric
hospitals. "There are no statistics we can use to show how many
people with no problems are getting 'treatment' in mental-health
hospitals. And it is impossible to know. ...We are trying to do our
best," Khachatrian said.
A 2014 study by the non-governmental organization Civil Society
Institute reported that 138 people in Armenia underwent compulsory
psychiatric treatment between 2008-2012, according to official data.
None were released early. During that period, courts recognized 775
people as mentally incompetent and reversed their decision in only one
case. No independent mechanism exists to ensure that valid grounds
exist for such hospitalizations. "This situation is disturbing,"
Sakunts said. "Mental hospitals are closed institutions, and,
unfortunately, they can serve as an instrument to settle interpersonal
relations; namely, issues related to revenge, a will, an inheritance,
or housing problems."
The Ministry of Health's chief psychiatrist, Dr. Samvel Torosian,
commented to EurasiaNet.org that the Helsinki Assembly report has
"very sharp angles," but conceded that there are "problem areas"
in Armenia's provisions for mental-health patients. He emphasized,
though, that reform must be approached methodically.
"At this moment, we are discussing suggestions [for reforms] made to
our lawyer, and, after that, we will examine international experience
and conventions [in this area] and submit proposals for reforms,"
Torosian said.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/69086
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
EurasiaNet.org
July 17 2014
July 17, 2014 - 3:20pm, by Marianna Grigoryan
During the Soviet era, Communist authorities occasionally had
dissidents committed to psychiatric hospitals as a way of keeping
them quiet. Times have changed, but rights activists in Armenia say
psychiatric hospitals are still occasionally being used and abused,
especially as a means of settling financial and other disputes among
friends and relatives.
"People can consider themselves absolutely normal, with no mental
disorders, but a single telephone call, a complaint filed by their
relatives, neighbors or other interested parties can lock them up
in a mental hospital for years, for an indefinite period of time,
through the joint efforts of police and emergency doctors," charged
activist Arthur Sakunts, chairperson of the Helsinki Citizens'
Assembly's center in the northern city of Vanadzor.
A Helsinki Assembly study of five state-run Armenian psychiatric
hospitals (four in the capital, Yerevan) reached this conclusion
after interviews with 316 hospital medical staff, directors, support
workers and patients. The findings have been presented to the Ministry
of Health, which reportedly has prepared a response, Sakunts said.
[Editor's Note: The Helsinki Assembly received funding from the Open
Society Assistance Foundation-Armenia to help produce the report. The
Armenian foundation is part of the Soros foundations network.
EurasiaNet.org operates under the auspices of a separate part of the
network, the Open Society Foundations in New York].
The story of 53-year-old Zhulieta Amarikian, a former patient at
Yerevan's Avan psychiatric hospital, illustrates the system's dangers.
After an argument over a Yerevan house they had inherited, Amarikian's
brother, Muraz, allegedly threatened last May to have his sister,
an individual with no previous mental-health issues, committed to
a psychiatric hospital. Police officers reportedly arrived the next
day, forced her into an ambulance and took her to Avan, according to
court papers.
"She is not sick," said researcher Marieta Temurian who met Amarikian
while working on the Helsinki-Aseembly report. "She suffered from the
atmosphere and conditions of the clinic, refused to take medication,
but the doctors tried to make her take the medicine and injected it
by force," Temurian said. With legal assistance from the Helsinki
Assembly, Amarikian petitioned a court for her release, and was
declared as mentally competent after an exam by a court psychiatrist.
She was released from the Avan facility after more than a month-long
enforced stay.
"I do not harm anyone. I just live quietly. I never had any problems,"
Amarikian, who is unemployed, told to EurasiaNet.org.
Amarkian claimed that her brother is still trying to have her
recognized as mentally incompetent. Under Armenia's civil code,
family members, legal guardians or the administration of a psychiatric
institution can request a court to recognize an individual as mentally
incompetent without the person in question having to appear in court.
Most of the hospitalized individuals included in the Helsinki
Assembly study are pensioners or, like Amarkian, are unmarried,
or live by themselves.
Amarkian's case is not unusual, according to Deputy Ombudsman Tatevik
Khachatrian, who said her office regularly receives phone calls about
such cases from concerned neighbors, or via letters from "a person in
danger." Conditions in psychiatric hospitals can worsen the situation.
Patients with no mental-health problems have been "tied up, faced
violence, gotten injections of drugs," she alleged. "People were
beaten with blankets covering their faces to avoid bruises."
The injections of psychotropic, sedative drugs "can affect [patients']
mental health, and after a month it's really hard to say whether the
person had mental problems or not," she added.
Armenian legislation can enable such abuse, critics say. Under a 2010
decree signed by then-prime minister Tigran Sarkisian, individuals
"subject to immediate hospitalization" who are brought to a medical
facility "by emergency psychiatric teams or their relatives" can
be hospitalized on the recommendation of the doctor on duty. An
examination by a "psychiatric commission" is required within 72 hours
of an involuntary admission, but, as a rule, studies show, physicians
from the hospital in question make up that commission.
That poses a potential conflict of interest, Khachatrian and Sakunts
believe: psychiatric hospitals receive 5,900 drams ($14.50) per day
from the state budget for the upkeep of each of their patients. In
a time of tight budgets, state-run hospitals have an incentive not
to release patients -- even if they were not committed for medical
reasons. Hospital directors could not be reached for comment.
The ombudsman's office cannot establish with certainty how often
individuals without mental-health problems are committed to psychiatric
hospitals. "There are no statistics we can use to show how many
people with no problems are getting 'treatment' in mental-health
hospitals. And it is impossible to know. ...We are trying to do our
best," Khachatrian said.
A 2014 study by the non-governmental organization Civil Society
Institute reported that 138 people in Armenia underwent compulsory
psychiatric treatment between 2008-2012, according to official data.
None were released early. During that period, courts recognized 775
people as mentally incompetent and reversed their decision in only one
case. No independent mechanism exists to ensure that valid grounds
exist for such hospitalizations. "This situation is disturbing,"
Sakunts said. "Mental hospitals are closed institutions, and,
unfortunately, they can serve as an instrument to settle interpersonal
relations; namely, issues related to revenge, a will, an inheritance,
or housing problems."
The Ministry of Health's chief psychiatrist, Dr. Samvel Torosian,
commented to EurasiaNet.org that the Helsinki Assembly report has
"very sharp angles," but conceded that there are "problem areas"
in Armenia's provisions for mental-health patients. He emphasized,
though, that reform must be approached methodically.
"At this moment, we are discussing suggestions [for reforms] made to
our lawyer, and, after that, we will examine international experience
and conventions [in this area] and submit proposals for reforms,"
Torosian said.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/69086
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress