Shocking pictures have emerged of widespread mistreatment of patients at a private psychiatric clinic in Greece.
Online magazine VICE published am expose on the unnamed clinic together with photos showing patients tied to beds and chairs.
VICE says the photos were taken by a whistleblower who wanted to expose the “mistreatment and the violation of the fundamental rights of the mentally ill patients”.
The photos and the testimony of eyewitness is shocking and disturbing, says VICE, which claims publicity can help improve conditions in all Greek psychiatric clinics.
The clinic, according to the report, consists of wings organized in a hierarchy of fees. The most basic is the ground floor, where patients stay at a cost of €150 ($186) per month and where the most disturbing cases of mistreatment were recorded.
Patients are tied for prolonged periods to their bed and chairs and there is excessive use of medication, the whistleblower claimed.
“Most of them are completely forgotten by their relatives and society. We would say that they are there to fulfill their biological needs until they die,” the eyewitness told VICE.