Months ago, the citizen called the hotline of the RA Human Rights Defender and informed that he was kept at Avan Mental Health Center without any grounds since he refused to be hospitalized.
Based on the complaint of the person, the RA Human Rights Defender's authorized representatives visited Avan Mental Health Center, had a private conversation with the person, the doctor that treated him, and his mother. At the same time, the applicant's medical records were examined.
Taking into account the vulnerability of the applicant, the Human Rights Defender has made a decision on starting a discussion of the issue on his own initiative. Clarifications about the recorded issues were requested from the RA Ministry of Health.
As a result of the discussion, a number of issues related to the protection of the person’s rights have been revealed, in particular, the person was not subjected to psychiatric commission examination after refusing hospitalization, the right of the person to outdoor exercise was not ensured by the psychiatric institution, as well as his medical history was not properly maintained.
As a result, the Defender has made a decision on the violation of human rights and freedoms and recommended to the RA Minister of Health the following:
1) Immediately carry out an investigation with regard to the violation of the rights of the person for the purpose of discussing the liability of the respective authorities,
2) Exclude such violations of human rights of persons with mental health issues,
3) Exclude the hospitalization of a person with mental health issues without his/her or legal representative’s consent, without a mandatory examination by a psychiatric commission,
4) Carry out proper supervision over the awareness of persons with mental health issues with regard to their rights, as well as over proper maintenance of medical documents,
5) Define procedures for the realization of the rights of persons with mental health issues at the legislative level,
6) Initiate a draft of amendments to the law, as well as declare void some decrees of the RA Minister of Health.