The psychiatric institutions pursue financial interests and want to have as many patients as possible, even against the patients’ will, executive director of the Moldova Institute for Human Rights (IDOM) Vanu Jereghi said. On the other hand, managers of the Psychiatric Hospital of Codru town, which is a suburban settlement of Chisinau, say the patients suffer because of nongovernmental organizations, which damage the image of the psychiatric institutions. Vanu Jereghi has told Info-Prim Neo that the medical procedure for persons suffering from mental disorders is rather complicated. They are brought before a judge and if they don’t want to remain in the hospital voluntarily, the doctors have 48 hours to present a report on the necessity of hospitalizing the person to the judge. According to Vanu Jereghi, the Psychiatric Hospital receives by 5,400 lei from the National Health Insurance House for every treated case. “Usually, when the patient is administered a lot of preparations during the 48 hours, they no longer refuse hospitalization. If they admit me to the hospital three times a year and every time it is considered a treated case, the institution every time receives by 5,400 lei. If the person stays in the hospital for 10 or 15 days, the institution does not receive money from the National Health Insurance House. The doctors must keep the person there for 28 days so as to take the given sum,” said the IDOM executive director. The Psychiatric Hospital in Codru admits 10,000 persons a year. “5,400 lei multiplied by 10,000 is a rather large sum,” said Vanu Jereghi. He also said that the persons who defend their rights and are more lucid are not admitted to such institutions. However, there are few such cases. Mircea Cucu, vice director on management, information and consultative services of the Psychiatric Hospital, said the persons who do not need treatment, but only care, like some of the elderly persons, are not hospitalized. “There are cases when the children want to have the parent hospitalized in order to sell the property. There are special shelters for persons who need care. The patients of our hospital suffer from serious mental disorders. We do not admit persons suffering from chronic alcoholism as they are treated by other kinds of institutions,” said Mircea Cucu. The information about the hospitalization of persons who committed offenses to psychiatric institutions in order to avoid imprisonment is not true, said Mircea Cucu. According to him, owing to such rumors and to NGOs that disseminate information about violations committed by psychiatric institutions, the image of these institutions is damaged. In a report compiled after visiting Moldova, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says that many of the rights of the patients of the Psychiatric Hospital in Codru are violated. “The hospitalized patients’ access to trials by which they can be discharged is limited. Though the law says the detention is reviewed every six month, the patients have not even heard about the revision commission. A patient said the system is good for depriving the persons of freedom, but it is very hard to be set free again,” said the Commissioner, who visited Moldova on November 1-4. Ion Catrinici, vice director for psychiatric-legal examination of the Psychiatric Hospital, stated for Info-Prim Neo that the UN Commissioner for Human Rights could not fully understand the situation after a visit of only several hours. “She spoke with the patients tête-à-tête. It depends on the patients to whom she talked. They could easily lie to her about the conditions in the hospital and the examination of their cases,” said Ion Catrinici. He also said that the court examines the necessity of extending, modifying or stopping the treatment by constraint once in six months. “There are patients who committed up to four murders and they want to go home after a year of treatment. They do not realize that they are a danger for society,” stated Ion Catrinici, adding there are few cases when the persons want to be hospitalized in order to avoid jail as they are easily identified. According to the Ministry of Health, the mental and behavioral disorders in 2010 totaled 2,764.3 cases per 100,000 people and the number is on the rise. Almost 19,000 of the over 98,000 sick persons recorded were children under 18. [Mariana Galben, Info-Prim Neo]