Albania Urged to Ensure Proper Care for Psychiatric Patients

A report published by the Council of Europe's Committee for Prevention of Torture on Tuesday after a three-day visit to Albania said that there is an urgent need to establish a specialised forensic psychiatric facility in the country to accommodate and treat male and female forensic psychiatric patients.

The committee's delegation visited Zaharia Special Institution for Ill Inmates in Kruja, where virtually all male forensic psychiatric patients in Albania were held, as well as the Prison Hospital in Tirana, which accommodated all female forensic psychiatric patients in the country.

The delegation also paid a brief visit to Lezha Prison to examine arrangements made to accommodate male forensic psychiatric patients on a temporary basis.

"The CPT acknowledges the measures taken by the Albanian authorities to transfer all male forensic psychiatric patients from the Kruja Special Institution to Lezha Prison," the report says.

"At the same time, given the structural deficiencies observed by its delegation both at Lezhe Prison and the Prison Hospital, the Committee stresses the urgent need to find a permanent solution for the accommodation and treatment of male and female forensic psychiatric patients by creating a specialised forensic psychiatric facility (as is required by the relevant mental health legislation)," it adds.

The report says that the Tirana prison hospital lacks communal spaces and facilities for psycho-social activities.

"It not only looks like a prison rather than a hospital, but it also lacks the necessary infrastructure to create an adequate therapeutic environment for long-term psychiatric patients," it says.

In 2020, Albania lost a case at the European Court of Human Rights over the degrading...