Minister ‘alarmed’ at Athalassa institution situation

LABOUR Minister Antonis Vassiliou has pledged to make better conditions for autistic children after a meeting held with parents.

Yesterday, the minister met with the parents’ association for autistic children at the Athalassa Psychiatric Institute in Nicosia and said he was “alarmed” with what he had been told by some of the parents.

Speaking to the minister and other officials yesterday, one mother spoke of the ordeal she and her autistic son had gone through since he began receiving treatment at the institute, “I feel that not even animals should be put in such an environment,” she said.
“I was stunned by what I saw. We are talking about an area that isn’t ventilated, there is no air-conditioning and it was like an oven in there.

“There was an awful smell from the toilets. The wood on the doors and in other places was rotten. The walls were broken and damp and the children were locked in an area.”
The mother, who was asked if she was sure of what she saw by Vasiliou, added, “When I went there at 5pm recently, I saw my child locked in a room and sitting naked on the floor. There was no ventilation in the room and he would even have to go to toilet in there because they would sometimes not open the door for him. Something has got to be done.”

Vassiliou said he would be pushing for a special centre for autistic children, adding that he would be meeting Health Minister Costas Kadis this Monday to discuss the issue.
“Without trying to avoid acknowledgement of what is going on at the institute, it is vital that we now do the right thing for autistic children in the future.”

Commenting on the mother’s experience, he added “that the confinement of the youngster was necessary because he had become violent and was a serious danger for his own health and to the staff at the institute. We therefore had to take him to the institute. It was not by choice and neither is it a solution for autistic children. It was the only solution because at present there is no place for such children.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.