Council of Europe: Harassment, Violence, Acute Staff Shortage Plague Bulgarian Psychiatric Wards and Care Homes

Council of Europe anti-torture Committee urges Bulgaria to stop physical ill-treatment of psychiatric patients and social care residents and to immediately cease the shameful practice of using chains as a means of restraint

In a report on Bulgaria published today, the Council of Europe's anti-torture Committee (CPT) notes with grave concern that the Bulgarian authorities have failed to take effective action to improve the situation in psychiatric hospitals and social care institutions in the light of the Committee's recommendations following its previous visits.

The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has published today the report on its ad hoc visit to Bulgaria, which took place from 10 to 21 August 2020. The report has been made public under the automatic publication procedure introduced by the Bulgarian authorities.

In the report, the CPT concludes that patients in Bulgarian psychiatric hospitals continue to be physically ill-treated by staff (slapped, pushed, punched, kicked, and hit with sticks) despite the Committee's recommendation, following its 2017 visit, that the Bulgarian authorities take steps to prevent the ill-treatment of patients by staff and to remove any non-standard issue objects capable of being used for inflicting ill-treatment from the premises of all psychiatric hospitals.

The Committee notes that staff numbers in the psychiatric hospitals continue to be grossly insufficient to adequately provide anything close to the necessary range of modern psychiatric treatments for patients nor to ensure patients' safety within the often highly austere wards. In the CPT's view, the lack of action in addressing the persistent staff shortages gives the impression that, in the Ministry of...