3.01.2023
The representatives of the Centre for Legal Resources (CLR) organized several unannounced monitoring visits in the period of September – November 2022 in private residential social care homes (NGOs and SRLs) but also financed from public sources, of social care for people with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities from Ilfov county.
The present report presents the findings of the CLR as a result of the visit made on September 7, 2022 to the Care and Assistance Social care home for Adults with Disabilities “Saint Gabriel the Brave” in Voluntari commune, Ilfov county.
Extract from the Monitoring Report:
The life of residents in accommodation spaces.
Regardless of the living conditions (rooms with pink blinds or in spaces in the basement of the building), the institutionalization of people on the grounds of intellectual and/or psychosocial disability represents an act of discrimination and must be sanctioned according to the law. People with disabilities must be informed, advised, assisted to live in the community, where, when and with whom they want.
At no point did CLR notice from the discussions with the employees of this social care home or even with the management, the intention to contribute to the inclusion of these people in the community. It is at least surprising the decision of some general directorates of social assistance and child protection to contract social services in this type of locations, given that the Romanian Government has adopted the National Strategy for Persons with Disabilities.
There is no legal or humane excuse to allow a state to lock up people for over 22 years in a psychiatric hospital in what they describe as unfit conditions and then lock them up in another space called a social social care home. People with disabilities have the right to be supported, trained, helped to lead a dignified life.
The residents encountered by the CLR team in this social care home had an unkempt appearance, were very weak, sad or resigned to the fact that they had no other solution anyway. The description of the accommodation spaces in the following paragraphs does not represent CLR’s intention to invite the improvement of living conditions, but to call for the provision of quality services, according to the law – In the community, with adequate staff.
The “Saint Gabriel the Brave” social care home operates in a villa with a basement, ground floor, first floor and an attic. It has a stone paved courtyard at the entrance and an undeveloped garden space at the back. All the rooms have a washed-out appearance, without personal belongings, the impression being of a temporarily inhabited space, hospital type.
Plastic sheeting can be seen on the mattresses on the beds, with some residents sleeping directly on it (the mattresses have no covers to protect them and when they move, the sheets fall or gather to one side and remain on the plastic sheeting) .
In the attic, in the open hall type space, there were 4 beds where immobilized people were located. From another room, also in the attic, came out a young woman who seemed sedated, she could not stand. She repeated several times that she doesn’t know why she’s there, she thinks her mother died and that’s how she ended up in the hospital and then in this social care home. She cried and begged to be taken from there.
In the basement is a tiled room, empty and with an opening the size of a vent, no wider than a palm. On the access door to this room was a poster with the message “ISOLATOR”.
Regarding the isolation ward, the social worker stated that:
“There was a man when he was brought from the hospital. They don’t stay here for aggressive behavior because the doctor tells the nurse what to give them to calm them down. The isolator is only for medical cases, when they come from the hospital.”
“When we don’t get along with them anymore, we call the ambulance, they are taken to the hospital.”
At the St. Gabriel the Brave Social care home, CLR received no allegations of physical abuse of residents by staff; however, CLR observed 9 residents who were accommodated in the basement of the building and received information that raises suspicions regarding the conditions in which at least two of the residents transferred to this social care home died.
A resident reported that he arrived at St. Gabriel the Brave from the Bălăceanca dormitory where he stayed for 8 years, having previously spent almost 4 years in the Bălăceanca Psychiatric Hospital.
“The car brought me here from the dormitory. I didn’t know where I would come. Keep in touch with your mother and sister. He’s from sector 3. He has a phone but hasn’t paid for the internet. I haven’t gone out on the street yet because my mother has to give a statement that I’m allowed.” .
A gentleman tells that he spends his time smoking and concludes: ” I am 22 years old in Bălăceanca, madam!. I didn’t get along with the family. It’s good to be free…”. Report the “transfer procedure” Bălăceanca – St. Gabriel the Brave Social care home:
“I packed my bag a day before. I came in the car with a roommate from Bălăceanca and the driver. I heard about the dormitory in Voluntari, but I didn’t know the place. Arriving here, like at any hospital, before being admitted, I was checked for lice, anyway I was getting a short haircut. I was taken to the bathroom by a woman who watched me until I washed. They gave me clean clothes and showed me where to sit. I have nothing to say. We have to be understanding with what we receive”.
From above in the upstairs hall, fenced with metal bars up to the ceiling, several residents are seen sitting on sofas in the hall / dining room, dressed scantily and poorly (old clothes, some tracksuits discolored probably from many washings, trousers tied with laces, blouses hanging on many of them). Most residents, women and men, are cut short with men’s clippers. Most of them have a frail appearance, very weak. The caretaker can be heard telling them
” Those who are good, their mother gives them biscuits “
” An elephant was swinging, he called another elephant, two elephants were swinging,…”
The residents are around 30-50 years old.
In the “Saint Gabriel the Brave” Social care home we identified only 1 nurse, 1 nurse, 1 social worker and 1 administrator, these people being responsible for the 27 residents;
From discussions with them, apart from the nurse, all other staff had no experience of working with people with disabilities. Please note that this social care home houses several residents with severe disabilities who require assistance and care adapted to their needs. We believe that staff should have been properly trained and recruited based on similar experience working with people with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities.
The CLR observes that the lack of information about the needs of residents, the lack of staff and specialized knowledge are able to contribute to the degradation of their emotional and mental health. Infantilization, the treatment of adult residents in a social service, the same as the beneficiaries of a “nursery” type service, is outside the obligations assumed at the domestic and international level.
Requests addressed to institutions that have competence in the matter:
- We request the President of ANPDPD and the director of ANPIS to verify the legality of the transfer procedures and the presence of people with intellectual/psychosocial disabilities in the ” Saint Gabriel the Brave” Care and Assistance Social care home for Adults with Disabilities ; ensuring that all residents in this social care home will benefit from quality, appropriate and urgent services IN the community and not smaller social care homes that contribute to the deterioration of the physical and mental state of residents. Ensuring that no resident will be penalized for speaking with CLR representatives.
- We request the Minister of Health to verify whether the procedure for maintaining involuntary hospitalization for persons hospitalized at Bălăceanca Hospital is respected;
- We request the Director of DGASPC Ilfov to verify the way in which the residents of the “St. Gabriel the Brave” Care and Assistance Social care home for Adults with Disabilities are institutionalized – considering the suspicions of arbitrary institutionalization and taking into account Romania’s conviction in the case of N. against Romania ;
- We request the Public Ministry to investigate the fact that in the social care homes in Romania there are cases of “suspicious death” that are not properly registered and investigated – taking into account Romania’s conviction in the CLR case on behalf of Mr. V. Câmpeanu v. Romania ;
- We request the Ministry of Labor and ANPDPD to make public and transparent the procedures for the transfer of beneficiaries from one social care home to another, the number of beneficiaries in each social care home (including social care homes that operate on the basis of a provisional license), the place of origin of the beneficiaries and who is responsible for the services made available to them. We also request the Ministry of Labor and the Monitoring Council to make available to the Public Ministry data on deaths registered in private social care homes financed by public and/or private funds (number, causes) as well as data on the number of people with disabilities institutionalized in social care homes for people elderly.
