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Tonight on Unreported World, Ade Adepitan travels to Mexico City, to meet a remarkable
group of people who are going into psychiatric institutions to expose the abusive and inhumane
conditions inside. This is no ordinary group of activists. They are all former patients
with on going mental health problems themselves. You might find some of the scenes in this
film distressing. We are filming under cover in a mental health
institution. A young woman has just run up begging me to rescue her. She's one of thousands
called "los abandanados", the abandoned ones. They are people who suffer from mental health
problems and are trapped in Mexico's psychiatric institutions in often abusive and degrading
conditions. One group of extraordinary people are determined to do something to help the
Abandanados, they meet every week in this community center. But these people aren't
social workers or doctors. This is the Colectivo Chuchan, a group fighting for the rights of
people with psychiatric disabilities. Now what makes them unique and the first of their
kind in Mexico is that every single one of them has their own psychiatric disability.
Natalia Santos is 26 and the group has just elected her as their President. She suffers
from paranoid schizophrenia and depression. Only a year ago, Natalia herself was inside
a mental health institution. Her friend Oscar Luna suffers from schizophrenia
as well and calls himself a survivor of Mexican Psychiatric institutions. Now they plan to
turn the tables they're about to go inside the institutions to gather evidence and expose
the conditions they endured and thousands of others still do. And I'm going to join
them. They've come together to help each other and now they want to take it to another level
by going into some psychiatric hospitals and forcing change.
13 years ago a widely publicized investigation by Disability Rights International found atrocious
and inhumane conditions inside several psychiatric institutions in Mexico. The Government of
Mexico promised to clean up its act and even spear headed the creation of the UN Convention
protecting the rights of the disabled. But the Colectivo believe that in reality nothing
has changed. The next morning I joined Natalia at the Colectivo office. The groups have been
working for months to get the permission to visit patients inside institutions. Natalia
has the task of calling the authorities. She's telling them it's a chance for patients to
meet people who understand what they're going through. That's true, but secretly she also
wants to document the conditions inside. Because of her Schizophrenia every phone call is an
ordeal. Today's the day of the first visit. It's time
for action. We're going off to our first institution with the Colectivo. They've devised a plan,
half of the group are going to distract some of the members of the staff and then we're
going off with Natalia to meet some of the patients and see the conditions that they're
living in. Villa Mujeres is an institution run by local
Mexico City Government, which holds over 380 women. They're expecting the Colectivo this
morning but not a film crew.
Villa Mujeres is an institution run by local Mexico City Government, which holds over 380
women. They're expecting the Colectivo this morning but not a film crew. We hide the camera
and take it out once we're allowed inside. We see very few staff. Many of the women have
been held here for decades abandoned by their families with little chance of ever leaving.
I head for the patients living quarters and begin to film. The institution knew we were
coming and so had the chance to clean up.
I mean this is just crazy, there's human feces on the floor. There's flies everywhere. The
stench is just.. it's just disgusting.
The hygiene situation is just zero. Even the patients are covering their faces. The whole
place is a human toilet. The whole place.
In the corridor outside, two women are tied to their wheelchairs. One of the women is
in pain and trying to free herself. There are no nurses in sight.
Priscilla Rodrgiuez, a disability rights camapaigner, whose advising Colectivo, approaches them.
It's too tight. Can you loosen it?
This is a practice that's quite prevalent in institutions. They tie patients up to their
wheelchairs and they leave them there. No one should ever be tied to a wheelchair. Not
against their own will. It's just ridiculous.
According to the UN, there can be no justification for the use of physical restraints on patients
with psychiatric disabilities.Tying up a patient even for a short period of time may constitute
torture.
Eventually, a nurse spots us untying
the woman.
The nurse tells us she's one of only two people looking after the 60 patients in this area.
So these two women are tied up from the moment they wake until four in
the afternoon.
I rejoined the main group where Natalia is talking to some of the patients and documenting
their stories.
For the
patients the visit is a huge moment. Many have been abandoned by their families, spending
their days with nothing to do, with no meaningful rehabilitation, it's effectively a life of
sentence with no chance of appeal.
The
visit leave Colectivo Members deeply upset. But they are determined to record their findings.
Colectivo Members have always known making these visits can pose a risk to their own
mental health because they bring back painful memories of their time in institutions.
Since leaving the institution last year, Natalia has lived at home with her parents, she was
hospitalized after making an attempt on her own life. She shows me the entries in her
diary from that time.
Her parents, Rebecca and Saladonio tell me that they took her to an institution because
they were so worried.
They took her back as soon as they could but many families in Mexico are forced to abandon
their relatives in institutions because they can't afford the high cost of drugs.
Most people with mental health problems in Mexico who live outside institutions do so
thanks to the support of their relatives. The next morning I meet Colectivo Member,
Oscar Luna, who suffers from Schizophrenia and has been in and out of institutions for
ten years.
Last year Oscar was referred to a psychiatric research institution run by the federal government
that treated him well. They prescribed him medication that quiets the voices. He now
lives with his mother, Maria.
Oscar has been stable for a year. His mother finally feels some hope. But a decade of constant
crisis has taken its toll.
Maria's greatest fear is that when she's gone, Oscar may end up abandoned in a psychiatric
institution. The next morning we're going to a men's institution, again run by the City
authorities, called, Cais Cumenco. Now according to local sources that we've spoken to the
conditions are very bad. Amongst the worse of public shelters in Mexico City.
Colectivo Members have told me it's going to be a tough day. Despite this they all turn
up.
Natalia tells me she had a sleepless night. Her symptoms are flaring up. She's hearing
voices.
Despite the voices, Natalia insists on carrying on.
We go in with hidden cameras. A member of staff gives us a tour. At the first opportunity
we slip away. We're just surrounded by guys who are just lying around with nothing to
do. Flies and the smell and the stench is disgusting. Probably the most shocking is
the guy over there with no clothes on. You can see he's got a physical disability and
I think he's squatting there to defecate. As we walk around the premises, we see feces
over walls everywhere. We talk to a member of staff.
Cais Cumenco, holds over 300 men, trapped together. But the problems here are far more
serious than just the sanitary conditions.
We have not been able to independently verify these allegations. But human rights groups
have recorded numerous reports of *** and *** abuse in psychiatric institutions across
Mexico.
This place more than any other has shaken
the members of the Colectivo.
For the Colectivo, the problem is not only the shocking conditions inside these institutions
but the needless incarceration of thousands.
Without any government support, family is the only lifeline people with psychiatric
disabilities have in Mexico. But having to depend on her family has not always been easy
for Natalia.
This
is
one of the biggest days in the history of the Colectivo. They're holding a press conference.
They're delighted that there's a good turnout of journalists from newspapers and television
stations. Virginia Gonzalez Torres a Senior Advisor in Mexico's Mental Health for the
Federal Government has also turned up. But not everyone is here. The Government representatives
of Mexico City and all the Directors of the shelters promised to come and didn't turn
up.
Natalia has delivered a moving speech. And it seems to have made an impression on Virginia
Gonzalez.
She may be high ranking but she struggled to make any impact on the State and City authorities
who run psychiatric hospitals.
Isn't everyone just passing the buck? What is taking responsibility or leadership?
But what about the Directors in these institutions themselves? Why did they have to wait, can't
they see? I mean they must be able to see the human rights abuses that are going on.
You know? You can't wait for...
She's impressed by the work of the Colectivo and wants them to join some Government Committees.
For people used to being written off it's a big moment.
Thousands of people in Mexico are trapped in Mexican psychiatric institutions. I felt
privileged to have experienced with the Colectivo, the birth of a new movement that will hopefully
help change all that. And to have met the extraordinary people who from now on will
be at the forefront of the struggle for their own rights.