MOSCOW, November 14 (Sputnik) — Disabled children in Greek hospitals are locked up in cages, which can be detrimental to their psychological and physical health, Steven Allen of the Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) told the BBC on Friday.
"Being kept in a cage is seriously detrimental to the psychological health of patients, has no therapeutic value and can actually be physically dangerous. There have been cases [elsewhere] where the bars of cages have fallen on to patients and killed them," BBC quoted Allen as saying.
Greek hospitals are underfunded, understaffed and overworked. This problem first came to the attention of the Greek ombudsman for the rights of the child in 2010, when a damning report shedding light on the situation was published.
According to the report, "there is a significant shortage of services provided to the residents resulting from a lack of staff as well as from the nature of the institution. The residents are deprived of basic human rights and undergo discrimination and isolation".
Nevertheless, Greek health workers do not consider this situation as wrong or as a violation of the children's rights and claim that putting the children in cages is for their own good, as some of them are violent to other patients or may hurt themselves.
"The cages are there to protect the staff not the children," BBC quoted Allen as saying. "They are based on a model of care that is about coercion, restriction and making people with disabilities easy to manage, not treating them as human beings with rights," he added.
According to BBC, almost five years after the report was published the situation has still not improved.
The Greek economic crisis was triggered by a massive increase in government debt in 2008-2009. Investors were concerned that Greece was unable to meet its debt obligations. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund are currently helping Greece to overcome the crisis, but it also means that Greece is now bound by stringent rules set by them, including a memorandum on hiring new staff, which, according to BBC, may change the situation in Greek hospitals for disabled children for the best.
