"We are planning to extend our methadone project and within the coming week we will address penitentiaries in written", says Samvel Torosyan, the RA chief psychiatrist.

The methadone project (methadone is a synthetic narcotic drug used to treat drug addicts) that is being implemented at the Narcological clinic will hereafter involve also penitentiaries. The project currently involves only 120 people whereas it has the capacity of 450 patients.

"Well, everybody who applied was accepted; during the coming 4 years the number of patients will gradually grow like it did from 60 to 120 in the last one year", Petros Semerjyan, director of the Narcological clinic says.

He believes that few patients are involved in the project since many people are not aware of it or do not want to apply.

"We never really realized why so few people were involved in the project taking into consideration the fact that the number of drug addicts has grown in our country; however we understood that the mechanism of involvement in the project is very complicated. I think there are certain machinations here that is why we got a very rude answer that we had nothing to do there; however, in a month we are going to touch upon that problem again", Arsen Babayan, the Helsinki Association programs officer says.

In 2009-2010, within the framework of the project "Human Rights Situation in Armenia" the Helsinki Association carried out monitoring of four psychiatric institutions - Nork and Nubarashen psychiatric clinics, Narcological clinic and Sevan psychiatric hospital.

Members of the monitoring group were not allowed to do research at the Narcological clinic. Petros Semerjyan told www.hra.am that they had no right to enter their clinic since, in his opinion, it was not a psychiatric institution.  

The monitoring group, in particular, touched upon deplorable housing conditions in psychiatric institutions.

For decades no serious repair work has been done in the four psychiatric institutions of Armenia, only some cosmetic repairs from time to time. 

"Nubarashen psychiatric clinic was in a rather bad sanitary and hygienic condition. All departments had two bathroom units - one for employees, the other for patients. The latter were in deplorable condition - ceilings and walls were dilapidated, pipes were rusty, taps were out of order. The bathroom units had three sinks and three Asian type toilets that were not separated by partition walls", the report reads.

Samvel Torosyan, the RA chief psychiatrist said they are aware of the problems and they speak out: "We manage to provide medicine for the patients; however, the state does not provide funding to improve housing conditions". 

Karine Ionesyan 

Source: www.hra.am