O DRAMA DOS MAUS TRATOS AOS DOENTES MENTAIS EM ÁFRICA: LEVANTA A TUA VOZ!

Pouca gente tem real noção da forma desumana como são tratados os doentes mentais, que por ser doentes não deixaram de ser seres humanos, como é óbvio; acorrentados, sem tratamento ou alivio digno desse nome, vivem assim, presos dentro de mentes sem paz, presos pelo estigma e desprezo a que os doentes mentais sempre são votados onde haja ignorância. Toda a gente tem misericórdia de um doente com doenças fisicas graves, mas pobre do cérebro coitado, parente pobre dos orgãos do corpo humano, sem direito a adoecer e pior: quem adoece mentalmente ainda é maltratado apesar de nenhum sofrimento se comparar ao sofrimento de viver sem paz de espírito1 quem diz que sente misericórdia de um doente e exclui um doente mental ou foge a sete pés dele como se a sua doença fosse contagiosa ou desprestigiante para quem fala com um donete mental, mente, não ama ninguém, não sente misericórdia dos doentes e desconhece que tratar mal estas pessoas é como dar um pontapé no estômago de um doente com úlcera no estômago: fazer doer a alma a estas pessoas e agravar-lhes a prisão e dor da solidão é o equivalente a esmurrar o estômago de um doente de úlcera do estômago! Aliás, não podemos esquecer que estas pessoas, na sua maioria, se estão assim mentalmente doentes é porque já sofreram muito, não venhamos nós fazê-las sofrer mais com a ignorância com que as vemos, lidamos com elas e as desconsideramos na hora de as tratar ou lhes dar carinho que é o melhor remédio de todos. Todo o mundo, centenas de organizações não governamentais pelo mundo todo: religiosas e não religiosas, preocupam-se com as dores do corpo, a fome, a sede, mas esquecem um dos males mais dolorosos para qualquer ser humano: as dores da alma e da mente.
Algumas reportagens, feitas por jornalistas empenhados e com bons valores morais, têem sido transmitidas pelas estações de televisão mundiais e canais por cabo como é o caso do Discovery channel, portanto o mundo, o cidadão comum nem desconhece nem concorda e indigna-se com as correntes em torno dos tornezelos dos doentes mentais por toda a África e exige que esta forma desumana de tratar pessoas doentes e não criminosas, como parece pela forma como as tratam, seja travada e haja da parte da Organização mundial de saúde e da União africana mais interesse e acção contra este problema: sem passar, é claro, por impedior reportagens: que é o modo sujo como certas questões deste tipo são por vezes resolvidas em alguns países do mundo menos civilizados, pobres ou honrados (que não só em África), mas sim tomando mediads de auxilio: investindo o dinheiro que for preciso para ter politicas de saúde mental civilizadas e enquadráveis no século XXI em que estamos...da parte das organizações não governamentais: mais atenção a estas zonas do mundo tão esquecidas e sempre que são lembradas só se lembram de quem tem fome e não de quem sofre na alma, que sofre tanto ou mais que nas dores fisicas ou necessidades do corpo! o amor, o carinho, a atenção: são necessidades tão urgentes quanto as fisicas e que não satisfeitas matam por dentro.
Venho por isso pedir mais empenho na resolução desta questão: o fim das correntes; porque doentes não são criminosos, mais amor para estas pessoas e atenção, mais misericórdia: um tratamento mais humano e profissional, mais civilizado e condizente com o século XXI e com o de países civilizados onde a medicina psiquiátrica é levada como deve ser: a sério!
Aqui estão alguns links de reportagens que têem passado no mundo e que espero que não passe pela cabeça dos lideres dos países africanos proibir...sería um escândalo maior e mais condenável ainda, até porque agora o mundo já está atento...seria um erro grave: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8040057.stm E http://english.alshahid.net/archives/20624 E http://www.emphas.is/web/guest/discoverprojects?projectID=332 e há também o filme em cima.
Creio também que faz falta a muitas organizações que lutam contra esta situação receber mais especialistas voluntários: psiquiatras e psicólogos e arranjarem formas simples de receber donativos: caixas para donativos em vários países. em supermercados, em parceria com cadeias mundiais de restaurantes, o sistema click to donate ou donativos via banners on-line, e-cards e outras formas grátis e fáceis de receber donativos: pouco a pouco se criaria um fundo de manutenção de serviços...

Venho por isso pedir que enviem esta carta chamando a atenção de organismos governamentais africanos, da ONU, da OMS, mas também das mesmas O.N.G.s que se ralam só com a fome e se esquecem disto. é só copiar / colar e enviar para os mails que eu dou logo de seguida e links directos (o texto é o mesmo que estão agora a lêr mas em inglês, com algumas alterações. Obrigada).

Cá vai a carta/mail:


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LETTER/MAIL TO SEND AGAINST THE ABUSE AND DISREGARD OF THE MENTALY ILL IN AFRICA. SEE THE REPORTS HERE:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8040057.stm E http://english.alshahid.net/archives/20624 E http://www.emphas.is/web/guest/discoverprojects?projectID=332

Few people have real notion of how bad the mantaly ill are treated back in Africa. Chained like animals, no attention, no mercy, no love, no proper care; these people who, in most cases, have allready suffered so much in their lives and still do, due to lack of peace, of love and due to stigma, are treated as animals or criminals, as if being sick was a crime, or as if the brain was not just an organ of their bodies, malnourished bodies...Africa is not the only country where this happens. Many uncivilized and developping countries still disregard these poor people. So please send this letter to the e-mails and adresses I posted after it (just copy/paste/send) and help in the several ways I ask you to here. Thank you.
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Your Excellency:

Few people have the real sense of the inhumane way the mentally ill are treated in Africa ,when in the twentieth century every country should have the notion that being sick does not mean they are no longer human beings...and therefore they should not be chained and should have access to proper and civilized health care! the way they livee in so many cases throughout Africa: no treatment or relief worthy of the name, trapped inside their minds with no peace and no relief, mercy, love or proper care, arrested by the stigma and ignorance associated should be a shame and it is, for everybody in the world, a shame upon these African countries! Everyone has mercy towards a patient with severe physical illness, but poor poor brain...seems to be the poor relation, the weakest link in the human body... without the right to get sick and worse: mistreated and mocked, abused whenever it gets sick! those who are mentally ill many times, had a life of pain and trauma, that should be enough to get them some erspect and mercy if decent human beings where taking care of them, but no...they still have to be chained as if they had committed a crime by being sick, something that, by the way, can happen to all of us because nobody knows what the future brings except God. Some people mistreat the mentaly ill: what if those people had a metaly ill son or daughter? or a grandson or granddaughter? and do they know their future? why do we allways think it only happens to others?
If someone with a stomach ulcer was punched in the stomach by a bad person wouldn't we all be angry at that person, disgusted by that attitude?! well, when somebody mocks or chains or abuses a mentally ill in anyway is the same thing, and yet I see no measures being taken here to stop the villainies against these poor people! Many speak of indifference towards Africa by other countries: well I say that first of all Africans must unite to help each other too, to be respected for that coalition capacity and the capacity to take a step forward to modern age health care: the human, civilized, proper health care, one that no longer embaraces Africa...because chaining sick people like criminals is a shame, an embaracement, a terrible one! what kind of respect can a country like that earn? or it's leaders? these porr people are ill, in many cases, also because they have suffered much, so how can anybody still chain them, or disresgard them, or ignore them?! are we still worthy of being called human beings still? I don't think so...
Affection: that is the best medicine of all. Worldwide, hundreds of NGOs around the world: religious and nonreligious, are concerned with the pains of body, hunger, thirst, but they forget one of the most painful ailments for any human being: the heartaches and the mind aches.
Some reports made by journalists committed and with good moral values, have been transmitted by television stations worldwide and cable channels such as Discovery channel, therefore the world, both ordinary and influent people, know about this and neither agree with the indignant currents around the ankles and hands of the mentally ill throughout Africa, nor the negligence they are treated with, and require this inhumane way to treat sick people to stop! require measures to have a decent mental health policy, with decent investment but also require N.G.O.s and humanitarian associations to pay more attention to these people which hasn’t been the case for many...not all pains envolve hunger or thirst, these pains are, so many times, harder to bare...
This is a smahe, an embaracement, a reason for political and moral disrespect towards Africa and any country who keeps this problem alive! and Africa is not the only problem...many poor and undeveloped countries in the world still have this problem to solve,but as my mother uses to say: "we should never imitate the worse but only the better"...wise advice... here are two links that talk about the shameful, disgusting way the mentaly ill are treted in some countries:http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/07/us-mental-idUSTRE6962VT20101007 http://www.jpma.org.pk/full_article_text.php?article_id=1505: “…A report4 from Turkey's psychiatric hospitals mentions the horrific abuses where patients were subjected to raw electroshock as a form of punishment. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in these centers' is given without anaesthesia to treat a wide range of illnesses in both adults and children. The Daily Mail5 from United Kingdom mentions the plight in shared, mix wards where patients were more vulnerable to abuse. The concerned investigators report that vulnerable patients are compulsorily detained, including women and young people who are at risk of rape, sexual harassment and intimidation. A report from Australia6 states that aboriginal patients were manacled, abused and left naked and hungry for seven days. Mental Disability Rights International, a US-based human rights organization, said that as many as 17,000 patients in Serbia were tied to their beds for 'lifetime' to keep them from harming themselves. They were neglected and made to suffer from 'tantamount to torture'7. It is also mentioned that at times caregivers abuse patients and usually get away with it.8 Research9 reveals that patients treated for mental illness are more likely to fall victim to violent crimes than to perpetrate it themselves. It is further said, that such individuals are 6-7 times more likely to be murdered than those in the general population. In one study10, 20-34% of the psychiatric outpatients were violently victimized. Evidence is available in literature about vulnerability of mentally ill patients to be stigmatized in society. It is said that Schizophrenia, a serious mental disorder carries a good prognosis in the developing countries as compared to the developed world. Does that mean that things are much different in terms of attitudes and behaviours toward the mentally ill? Apart from family network and support there are a number of factors that are not favourable for the mental well being of individuals let alone patients…There are two types of institutions for chronically ill psychiatric patients in Pakistan. They can be in public or private sectors along with some philanthropic services. The public sector hospitals in most instances depict a gloomy picture. The environment is reportedly non-conducive, treatment by the staff is harsh, beatings and abuses are not uncommon. The patients are sometimes subjected to sexual abuse but such incidents are not reported and at times blocked by political pressures. In some public and private centres, ECT treatment is given without anaesthesia or muscle relaxants. Hygienic conditions and quality of food is questionable and at times unfit for human beings. There are number of prisoners in jails who are booked under criminal charges. The prison psychiatric service is far from satisfactory and many convicted prisoners' have not been assessed for mental health before being sentenced…”
Me and a lot of people, those who saw these reports , and they are many: not only from TV but from newspapers and internet, require WHO organization to stop pretending they don't see, to stop the silence around this issue, to confront those who must be confronted with this situation! I'm sending a letter to all that should listen and don't do it. Even N.G.O.s...I believe that what is lacking in many organizations that fight against this situation is getting more volunteers among experts: psychiatrists and psychologists and arrange simple ways to receive donations: donations boxes in various countries placed in supermarkets, in partnership with global enterprises of restaurants,clothes etc, also the system called "free click to donate" on the internet or donations via online banners, e-cards and other free and easy ways to receive donations: little by little they would create a maintenance fund...and also: instead of several african N.G.O.s for the mentaly ill, in so many countries,N.G.O.s that never grow a lot, why not only one but bigger, stronger more visible? and where are the major N.G.O.s for humanitarian causes here?! why is only hunger considered a serious issue? what hurts more? the lack of food or the lack of peace?! both are important but it should be refered that the lack of peace is one of the biggest pains any human being can feel...

Please do something...

Sincerely, (assinar e país)

ENVIAR PARA / SEND TO:


ups_spa@yahoo.com
Info@mentalhealthfoundation.com
Africa.deafnet@deafcare.co.za
Head.deafnet@deafcare.co.za
info@who.int.
publications@who.int.
regafro@afro.who.int
publications@who.int
webmaster@afro.who.int
mail@wfmhafricainitiative.org
kebeded@afro.who.int
bensona@afro.who.int
ngandab@afro.who.int
musangol@ga.afro.who.int
drameb@afro.who.int
avocksoumad@afro.who.int
dagamas@afro.who.int
cardosob@afro.who.int
info@kenyaredcross.org
pretoria.pre@icrc.org
movement_conference@icrc.org
frctm@online.tm
icrc.gva@icrc.org
cdroege@icrc.org
man_health@icrc.org
doctors@newyork.msf.org
alice_lincoln@newyork.msf.org
michael_goldfarb@msf.org
sartorius@normansartorius.com
MCCbrothers@libero.it
vinmaryo@yahoo.com
boniface.hicks@email.stvincent.edu
mtc@motherteresa.org
wr@pak.emro.who.int
enquiries@health.gov.au
tpd-myk@psikiyatri.org.tr
ngobebed@afro.who.int
hospitaleiros@isjd.pt
sede@isjd.pt
cst.telhal@isjd.pt
curiafbf@tin.it
USAProv-Office@sbcglobal.net
info@stjohnofgodseniors.org
Admin@sjghcs.org
who@who.or.id
aamh-enquiry@unimelb.edu.au
info@cmha.org.uk
English@mail.gov.cn
service@newhealth.com.cn
moph.nacp@gmail.com


http://au.int/en/contact

http://www.harunyahya.com/contactus.php?ref=theislamicunion.com

http://www.srbija.gov.rs/vlada/kontakt.php

http://www.un.org/en/contactus/

http://www.mcpriests.com/14_feedback.htm

http://www.ups-spa.org/en/contact/

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-comments.htm

http://www.mohe.gov.af/?lang=en&p=contactus

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RED CROSS:
Comitê Internacional da Cruz Vermelha
Address:
19 Avenue de la paix CH 1202 Genebra
Tel: +41 22 734 60 01
Fax: +41 22 733 20 57

OMS
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS
MÉDICOS EM FRONTEIRAS
USA Headquarters
333 7th Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10001-5004


Há outras formas de ajudar, como é sabido e neste caso peço a todos que assinem esta petição contra o estigma das doenças mentais e por mais meios para ajudar os doentes em países pobres:

Clica para assinar petição:http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/fight-mental-illness-stigma/

Também há formas grátis de doar a associações que lutam contra o estigma contra as doenças mentais e por melhores cuidados para todos os que sofrem delas, sobretudo em países pobres:

Clica para ajudar:

http://www.everyclick.com/world-federation-for-mental-health-uk-limited/396214/0/info

http://charities.everyclick.com/info.xq?id=110330&name=the-clifford-beers-foundation

http://www.ksmh.org/how-you-can-help/ways-to-donate

Porque ser doente não significa nem nunca significou deixar de ser gente!