It is not a kennel or an animal shelter, it is a state-run home for disabled children. A spoon slides between two wooden bars to feed a child; in and out, in and out until the child has eaten its meal. A hand turns a key in the padlock twice in order to secure the kid does not escape and runs thought the empty corridors, some painted in bright pink, yellow and blue to avoid a “depressive environment” as the director of the house says.
In EU of 2014, in Greece of strict austerity, in this grotesque public house of pain and need, 20 disabled children and teenagers are kept in cages due to shortage of personnel.
The BBC report “The disabled children locked up in cages” about the state-run home (?) for disabled children in Lechaina is shocking.
BBC-report Chloe Hadjimatheou wo visited the facility speaks of just “6 staff members taking care of 65 residents”, of “one nurse and one assistant per shift who have to change the nappies of more than 20 residents, hose them down, spoon feed them and medicate them,” off no permanent doctor in the center and of “a director who has not been paid for a year.”
“When residents need to go to hospital, they are accompanied by one of the nurses which means more than 20 residents are left in the care of just one person.” (BBC report)
Reading through the report one can hardly decide what is worse: that many of these children have been abandoned and forgotten by their parents? that there is no personnel to cover also the emotional needs of these children? that the personnel paints the wooden cages in pink stressing that “in the past the children were tied by their arms and legs to their beds”?
According to the management of the center some children “have self-destructive tendencies or are quarrelsome” and that “the staffing levels made it impossible to protect the children from harm,” therefore the need to have the cages custom built for the residents.
However, Steven Allen, of The Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) – an international human rights organisation for people with mental disabilities – argues.
“The cages are there to protect the staff not the children. 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.
“Being kept in a cage is seriously detrimental to the psychological health of patients, has no therapeutic value and can actually be physically dangerous.”
Also the Greek ombudsman concluded in his report that the cages and any practices employing long-term restraints “are clearly illegal and are in direct contradiction with the obligation for respect and protection of the human rights of the residents,” and he urged the Greek government to take immediate steps to rectify the situation. (BBC report)
Blame the responsible!
The BBC-report shocked not only the British audience but also the Greek public opinion as the report was translated and published by all mainstream and digital media and blogs. As expected, the Ministry of Health was heavily criticized. But, hey! The Ministry of Health is not responsible for the “tragic situation in Lechaina,” as deputy health minister Katerina Papakosta said in a statement, assuring that “the Ministry of Health is committed to cooperate with the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare in the issue” as the MLSW is the responsible for the 12 centers for disabled children and adults across Greece.
Deputy Health Minister Papacosta even proposed to Labor Ministry that these centers come under the responsibility of the Health Ministry “that has the means to provide the necessary support.”
To hear such a promise by a ministry that has left the Greek health care system without staff and means, sounds not very promising, indeed.
And odd enough, when the first scandal about Lechaina center broke out in 2011, it was the then Health Minister Andreas Loverdos who seemed very responsible for the center.
Health Minister, Andreas Loverdos, allowed the media to enter the facilities , interview the manager and make reports.
The minister promised to transfer 5 employees within the next days. (KTG report February 2011)
“the economic crisis means that the Greek state is bound to rules set by its lenders in the EU and IMF, including a moratorium on hiring new staff – as a result, it would be impossible to employ the number of staff needed at the center.”But while she says the government is discussing the children’s situation she admits, “I can’t give you an exact time line for when those children will be transferred out of that institution.” (full BBC report here)
However it is not the first time that the situation of the disabled children in Lechaina care-home makes headlines, ti is not the first time the responsible or the irresponsible officials declared to be hocked about the never ending inhumane conditions for the children in Lechaina, near Ilia in Peloponnese.
Lechaina 2011
A scandal broke out in February 2011, when a British physiotherapist, who offered voluntary work unveiled the drama of the children and the Middles Ages conditions in a European member country at the dawn of 21st century. The most shocking in the report was that the children were tied in their beds.
“Shocked by the Children’s Pain”
“I was shocked by the pain these children experience every day” the physiotherapist wrote in her report. There are children with “who have a kinetic potential live in wooden cages with only one layer in it.”
“Seven children and 70 teenagers with physical or mental problems vegetate in the Children’s Centre, live a non-life, forgotten by the social services and sometimes by their parents as well. The children and the teenagers have various problems from autism to Down syndrome, to paralysis and brain damage or genetic problems.
The daily room is a large room with carpet and walls painted with indifferent colors, there is a television playing, but no chairs, no toys or anything” wrote the volunteer in her exposing report. ” Every day the caretakers change the diapers of all children without any privacy. Also showers, 3 times per week, take place collectively”.
“Some of the children are autistic or have impaired vision. However, there are some that are aware and can well understand . When forced to live in these conditions they often hit their heads against the wall or uproot their hair (an indication of serious psychological trauma in children). They often hear music from the radio, which is a certain stimulus, but the rooms are bare and very hot in summer”. (full KTG report here)
According to then state NERIT TV, at that time there were 13 caretakers and one doctor working in the center.
Two years earlier, daily Eleftherotypia had reported of several cases of children mistreatment in Lechaina KEPEP and even of “mysterious” deaths. With the trials of those responsible to have been postponing from one year to the next.
In a state with a collapsed social welfare, children and adults with disabilities are protected only by a lesser God.
PS But Lechaina children now can enjoy pink and yellow and light blue cage bars and corridor walls….
