site.btaChildren, Disabled People in Institutions Are Most Vulnerable - Ombudsman's Annual Report

February 11 (BTA) - Disabled children and people in
social care institutions are the most vulnerable groups,
Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva told journalists. On Tuesday she
presented the eighth annual National Preventive Mechanism Report
 2019.

Last year, the Ombudsman's team made 55 checks at prisons and
detention centres, psychiatric hospitals and centres, 24-hour
detention facilities, refugee centres, as well as resident
social services for children and adults.

The process of deinstitutionalization is quite delayed and very
slow. It is expected to be completed in 2035.

There are insufficient community-based services.

The homes for people with dementia are overflowing with over 300
 people on waiting lists. There are not enough specialists and
the staff is badly paid and work in bad conditions. The attitude
 to institutionalized dementia patients is often inhuman and
violation of the rights of disabled have been registered in some
 homes, Kovacheva said. Also, there are no daycare centres for
dementia patients.

The unsatisfactory condition of state psychiatric help is also a
 major problem. It requires thorough reforms and adequate
funding. According to Kovacheva, the living conditions for
patients endanger their health and life. A patient's meal costs
0.63 leva and that is totally inadequate. Psychiatric hospitals
also provide social functions because of the lack of daycare
centres and protected homes.

Checks at institutions for children have found that some
children spent there 11 years and their parents never get
stripped of parental rights. It is high time for the state
institutions to establish a consistent practice and case-by-case
 approach to at-risk families, and offer them support instead of
 simply remove the children and place them with social
institutions, Kovacheva said.

Another persistent problem has proven determining people who are
 legally authorized to represent unaccompanied refugee children.
 Medical service at refugee facilities have not improved, mainly
 due to poor communication, the report says.

Checks at correctional institutions and detention locations have
 shown that some of the buildings have been rehabilitated but
some remain overcrowded.

The quality of healthcare in prisons remains poor. Inmates are
often kept handcuffed for days which threatens their health;
during visits inmates and visitors are separated by paritions;
and working inmates have their work incorrectly reported, the
Ombudsman also said.

She recommends that the prison in Sofia and the prison hostels
in Kremikovtsi, near Sofia, and in the northwestern city of
Vratsa be closed down. NV/BR

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