World Crisis Hits Nicaragua Mental Health
Hospital
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World Crisis
Hits Nicaragua Mental Health Hospital
Managua (AP) — Nicaragua's National
Psychiatric Hospital houses about 140
patients. But with little financial help
from the government, it lacks the resources
to help them.
The World Health Organization has warned
that the global financial crisis could
worsen the situation for patients there, as
well as in other mental hospitals in poor
countries.
For now, private companies and good
Samaritans have been donating food and
helping the patients, some of whom have been
housed there for 30 years, said Dr. Maria
Esther Paiz, the hospital's assistant
director.
They depend on the hospital for complete
support because their families have
abandoned them, she added.
A church helped renovate the wing for
elderly patients, which used to flood every
rainy season.
Director Dr. Roberto Aguilar says the
hospital, founded in 1936, needs new cars to
transport those patients who are allowed to
visit relatives. But limited government
resources go to medical hospitals that need
advanced equipment rather than to
mental-health care.
"Other hospitals and clinics around the
country are getting new equipment and are
being renovated," Aguilar said. "Here all we
have to work with is our minds."
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