The representatives
of the Human Rights Defender's staff, including a doctor and a psychologist,
paid an unannounced monitoring visit to the "Marie Izmirlian
Orphanage" State Non-Profit Organization on July 27, 2021.
Some
of the systemic problems registered during the visit are the following;
• The
students' care, resting, and living conditions violate the dignity of children.
The group rooms are overcrowded, the bedrooms, the playrooms, and the dining
rooms are not divided, the total area of a room does not correspond to the
number of students, there are no conditions for food to be served at the same
time. For example, at the time of the visit, it was recorded that there was not
enough space or furniture in the room to serve food to all the students
simultaneously: some of the students have to eat on the couch or wait until an
employee is free to feed them. In another case, some of the students of the
group had a daytime nap in the same room, but it was not possible to organize
the active rest of the other students of the group because of the lack of
building conditions.
This situation also causes arguments or tension
between the children. The problem further escalates because adults over the age of 18 continue to live with these children.
•
The institution does not have a "register on applying
physical restraint, seclusion or calming methods". The
main reason is that the staff is not aware of the legal requirements. Whereas,
the institution also organizes medical care for students, has a license to
provide psychiatric medical care and services, and provides social services to
the students of the institution. Hence, according to the Law of the Republic of
Armenia on "Psychiatric Care and services", the institution is
obliged to keep an appropriate register, to make complete entries in it, and to
record the process.
The Defender’s staff recorded that due to the
behavioral manifestations of the students of the institution, there are cases
when calming methods are used. As a rule, in case of the danger that the
students may harm themselves or other people, the staff calms the student, for
example, by taking a walk or persuading him/her. In case of drug sedation, it
is either done by
a drug called "Dinapetral" or its variants, which are only recorded
in the individual medical card of the given student. According to the staff,
restraint methods are not applied in practice. Therefore, in order to control
the following process in the institution, and to protect human rights, it is
necessary to develop methodological guidelines for the medical staff to ensure
that the requirements for proper maintenance of the records are met.
• According to the staff of the Human Rights
Defender, the education of the students who get homeschooled, as a rule, is only
conducted for formality purposes and does
not correspond to their educational needs and development
opportunities. One of the reasons is that the state has not introduced
educational standards and programs that meet the real needs of students.
At the time of the visit, the education of 47 students of
the institution was organized in general and special educational institutions, while 38 students were getting homeschooled. During the private
conversations, it was revealed that there are students who, while exercising
their right to education in general educational institutions, face or are
afraid to face integration problems or stigma, as a result of which, they avoid
attending school.
• According to the
Human Rights Defender, there are difficulties in returning the students to
their biological families and strengthening their ties with them when cooperating with the guardianship and
trusteeship bodies. For example, when community
social workers are to be involved in working with the family, the guardianship
and trusteeship bodies do not provide quick feedback, hence it is not possible
to find out who exactly works with the family.
• Though
the institution needs additional facilities to meet the needs of students, the
efforts of the staff to make building facilities accessible to persons with
disabilities are of great importance. For example, though the ramp that
provides the entrance and exit of the building is convenient and safe for the
movement of students, there is an elevator inside the building, and the unobstructed
movement from the group rooms to the park is provided, there are no grab rails
for people with disabilities in the bathrooms.
• Because of the lack of
specialists and practical targeted training, the students' skills to lead
independent lives fail to develop.
Specialists who work with the students, including nannies, are not enough
to organize work more effectively, which has a negative impact on guaranteeing
the rights of both the students and the staff. For example, the care of
students in need of palliative care or with self-care difficulties is carried
out by 2 or 3 staff members, when there are 12-14 students in a group. There is
a need for additional specialists in other groups of the institution.
The problem further deepens when
it is necessary to accompany the student to a medical facility or to arrange
for his/her care for the purpose of having examinations or inpatient treatment in medical
institutions. In this case, the staff who is already doing an extremely hard job in the institution now has to work in even more difficult conditions.
• The wage of the employees of the institution does not correspond
to the amount and the requirements for that work.
The results of the monitoring are being summarized; the
registered problems along with proposals for solutions will be sent to the
school principal and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic
of Armenia.
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