Patients with special needs should not be in hospital

A NUMBER of mentally handicapped patients should be immediately transferred out of a psychiatric ward and placed under the care of the Welfare Services, a DISY MP has said.

There are currently 17 adult patients with special needs, residing in ward 14 of the Athalassa Hospital outside Nicosia.

According to DISY’s Stella Kyriakidou, this is a violation of their human rights.

An evaluation committee has ruled that 12 out of these patients should not be housed at a psychiatric facility and recommended they be moved to more suitable premises.

“These patients should not be institutionalised,” Kyriakidou noted.

Arrangements are being made to transfer these 12 to St. Christopher’s home. The other five are to stay at Athalassa Avenue – as they also suffer from psychiatric problems – but are to be moved to a different ward.

Kyriakidou said, however, that the patients should be permanently placed under the care of the Welfare Services and not under the Psychiatric Services as is the case today.

She said ward 14 at Athalassa is not properly equipped to treat the mentally handicapped. Despite the best efforts of the staff, conditions at the ward are reminiscent of “past decades”, Kyriakidou said.

The deputy has urged both the Ombudsman and the Committee for the Protection of Mentally Handicapped Persons to intervene in the matter.

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