Blog 6: Inhumane Conditions for the Disabled

The Huffington Post released an article by Shantha Rau Barriga on March 5th titled, "Involuntary Treatment: The Invisible Health Care Crisis". The article focuses on cases of patients with mental and physical disabilities experiencing cruel and inhumane treatment in many psychiatric and elderly care facilities around the world, specifically two cases in Ghana. Patients at public psychiatric hospitals in Ghana are forced to eat, sleep, and urinate/defecate in a single 4x4 sq. ft. cell. The hospitals are overcrowded and do not provide adequate shelter for their patients, meaning that the patients often have to sleep on cold cement floors with no bedding, and have nowhere to seek shelter form the sometimes harsh climate and weather. Even more horrifying is that the employees of the hospitals frequently physically abuse the patients and use inhumane restraints against them, sometimes even forcing them into solitary confinement for up to 3 days as punishment for things like refusing to take medication or undergo certain medical treatments. The article also goes on to mention cases of the use of electroconvulsive therapy without proper anesthesia, which can be extremely painful for the patients involved. 
The author of the article also provides information about cases of similar human rights abuse of patients in many US and UK facilities that involve food deprivation, beatings, restraints, and even the use of caged beds that confine psychiatric patients to their beds. Going back to the topic of the implementation of solitary confinement in psychiatric hospitals, the article states that prolonged seclusion and/or restraints can constitute as torture when used against people with disabilities, and violates several international treaties against such acts. The article also mentioned that many of these cases continue to take place all around the world under the public's radar, and though involuntary hospital admission and treatment is often necessary in certain circumstances, forcing people to endure coercive treatments against their will violates their human rights, including their right to dignity. Fortunately, an international human rights instrument, known as The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, is currently binding in over 125 countries and was established to recognize the freedom from torture and the right to make their own decisions for people with disabilities. Although this is certainly a step in the right direction, the author mentions that further actions are still needed if the right reforms are to take place.
As the author of the article mentioned, governments have a responsibility to the people to prevent this type of torture and mistreatment from occurring, even if the specific care has been outsourced to private facilities. Just because some people suffer from severe and chronic mental or physical disabilities doesn't mean they lose their rights as a human being or their right to have input on their own treatment, nor does mean other people have the right to treat them at a lower standard. Governments around the world should take it upon themselves to routinely monitor the conditional of these hospitals and should enforce minimum standards for treatment and care of patients, including implementing policies that are constructed from the direction of those who actually experience the effects of the mental health systems themselves. It is not long ago in the United States' history that the psychologically and physically disabled members of our society were subjects to many of the same types of conditions and treatments that were covered in this article, but we were fortunately able to reform our mental health system and provide better care for these individuals. Now, the same thing needs to take place in other developing countries. Instead of relying on solely institutionalized care and segregating these people from the rest of the population these countries, like Ghana, need to implement community care systems and social integration into their mental health care policies. Without such reform, many people all around the world, like those mentioned in the above article, will continue to suffer and not get the proper care they need and deserve.


Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shantha-rau-barriga/involuntary-treatment-the_b_2812605.html

Brittany Briceno

03.08.2013

03:56PM