The state-run El Pampero Hospital in Venezuela has almost no drugs left for its tormented patients, let alone food and clothing, amid the nation’s economic crisis.
The New York Times has an excellent photo spread illustrating the horrific conditions in Venezuela’s mental “health” system.
In the beginning of the semester, we talked about the horrible conditions in asylums from the middle ages until the advent of the moral therapy movement. Things were still pretty bad until the development of psychotropic drugs that could treat the symptoms of mental illness.
Because Venezuela’s national economy is in the dumps, medication is not purchased for the hospital and the patients are floridly symptomatic. It is truly a nightmare, and a good reminder of how far we have come in treating mental illness.
The worst part is:
The Venezuelan government denies that its public hospitals are suffering from shortages, and has refused multiple offers of international medical aid.
