Mental patients feel like prisoners
Inmates in the Gyumri-based Center of Mental Health cannot communicate with the outside world since the building is not fortified.
After the 1988 earthquake, the center was relocated in the premises of an auto school which, according to the center director Nadia Vardanyan, is rather uncomfortable.
Specialists consider this to be a serious drawback, saying that organization of mental patients' leisure time is as important as their treatment.
"The completion of the construction requires great sums. The issue has been raised for many years, but to date there has been no reply," says the director.
The silence of government officials influences on mental patients who remain locked in their wards for days and weeks. They are also banned from strolling in the yard out of security measures. Unable ‘to bear the status of prisoner' some inmates have left the hospital.
Nadia Vardanyan is going to appeal to the authorities in hope of receiving financial assistance from them.
Tsayg TV, Gyumri
