ARTICLE - MENTAL HEALTH CARE DEPLORABLE

DEPLORABLE SITUATION IN THE AREA OF MENTAL HEALTH
(Haiti Libre) -

Antonal Mortimé, the Executive Secretary of the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHOH) regrets that the problem of mental health in Haiti is neglected, not to say ignored in our society.

"Mental illness is a phenomenon that is not quite accepted or tolerated by many people of the Haitian population. It constitutes a category of diseases for which today we continue to have value judgments and discriminatory attitudes. There is a preponderance of physical health at the expense of mental health [...]

Having psychological problems in Haiti, is being exposed to abandonment, and isolation, as if there was no hope. Indeed, as soon as a person suffers from a mental disorder, the first explanation is mostly supernatural. For some, the patient is possessed [...] After having tried elsewhere without finding solutions, these mentally ill people are abandoned in the streets, given the lack of a psychiatric center to accommodate them. Note also, that other patients, by lack of attention by their families, fled without nobody searching for them [...]

A report published in 2011 by the Assessment Instrument for Mental Health System (AIMS), developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is intended to compile basic data for assessing the Mental Health System, has presented the number of professionals working in the field of mental health in Haiti.

The country has 27 Psychiatrists (0.28 psychiatrist per 100,000 inhabitants). The majority, 70% (19) is engaged exclusively in private or NGO, 30% (8) working in public and private structures; 14 physicians not specialized in psychiatry {0.14 per 100,000 population), 36 nurses (0.38 per 100,000) 194 Psychologists (2 per 100,000 population), 82 Social Workers (0.86 per 100,000 population) and 1 OT-Neurologist. In reading this data, we can only note that there is an acute shortage of professionals in this field in Haiti.

POHDH believes that the situation of the mentally ill is inconceivable in this 21st century marked by the advancement of human rights in some countries and the progress of certain scientific disciplines such as psychology arriving to explain the evolution of certain mental disorders and thereby , propose some methods to solve or cope with some problems.

POHDH reminds that there are in Haiti two public neuro-psychiatric institutions: Défilée Hospital of Beudet, and the University Hospital Mars and Kline Centre. According to the report of the AIMS / WHO, these two institutions are in a state of disrepair and there is no availability of community follow-up treatment.

Recall that on October 10, during the International Day of Mental Health, the government, through the First Lady Sophia Martelly, took the initiative to launch operation "Tèt poze, Kè poze", which consisted of identifying the mentally ill in the streets for a support at the Beudet Centre. A toll-free number, 177, was made ​​available to the public to report the presence of patients across the country. The government also promised to strengthen existing centers and to create new psychiatric centers.

However, the presence of the mentally ill in the streets persists in the streets, and so far the 177 number does not work. We still have not noticed the construction of other psychiatric centers in the country, or the strengthening of those existing.

To this end, POHDH believes imperative to address these recommendations to the concerned authorities, asking them:

Pass laws that define and grant clearly, special rights to the mentally ill;

Educate and sensitize families, groups and communities, in the supervision of the mentally ill;

Create many more centers and psychiatric hospitals in all departments of the country;

Strengthen the University Hospital Mars and Kline Centre and the Défilée Centre of Beudet, which are in the downtown of Port-au-Prince and Croix-des-Bouquets respectively;

Develop a mental health policy to recover the mentally ill circulating in the streets;

Train more mental health professionals who must integrate into the Public Hospitals; Enforce laws preventing discrimination vis-à-vis the mentally ill, according to art. 5 of the United Nations Convention on Disability Rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its Article 2.