BEIRUT, Jan 7: Children and adults with disabilities at a care center in Aley were mistreated by the center’s personnel, Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour said Thursday, warning that the facility’s closure was imminent in light of “inhumane” treatment and neglect.

“If the families of the disabled children refuse to relocate their children from this facility, I will request a court order to completely shut it down,” said Abu Faour, who canceled the ministry’s contract with the center, the Association for Protection of the Lebanese Children, last month and asked the families to transfer their children to other facilities.

“On a surprise visit around two months ago, I saw disabled children and adults tied to metallic beds in a completely unhygienic and ill-equipped center,” said Abu Faour.

In a news conference at the ministry, Abu Faour voiced anger both at some of the disabled children’s families and the center’s administration.

“Disabled people at this center are being treated inhumanely,” said Abu Faour. The facility was initially founded in 1987.

“What I saw is incompletely unacceptable ... the center, which now has 17 disabled people, is no longer a center but a hall where people await their death,” said Abu Faour.

Three patients have been transferred but 17 patients remain at the facility.

Following his visit to the facility, Abu Faour tasked two ministerial investigative teams to report on the center’s operations.

According to Abu Faour, the two teams reported back that personnel working at the facility were severely mistreating their patients, including placing them by themselves with no one attending to them.

“The first report indicated that most of the disabled people at this two-story facility were not receiving proper care,” said Abu Faour, adding that the facility lacked basic sanitation and other amenities.

“Most of the beds at the facility are metal, which aren’t recommended by doctors ... disabled children were controlled by having their hands tied to those beds with metal chains,” Abu Faour told reporters.

The facility lacks proper air conditioning systems and the windows of the facility were covered most of the time, leaving the patients to live in darkness during most of the day, the report added.

Abu Faour also detailed the report prepared by the second ministerial team, which focused on the medications the patients receive at the facility. According to the report, most of the disabled patients receive medication but have not undergone medical examinations for years.

The report also says that there are no records or other medical documents for children with disabilities at the facility detailing their treatment history.

“We had hoped that these reports would be handled away from the media [spotlight], but the neglect by some of the patients’ families and the facility officials prompted us to announce them in a news conference,” Abu Faour explained.

Both reports found that expired medication was being given to patients, which may have led to the death of one of the disabled children, according to Abu Faour.

“We are not 100 percent sure, but one of the children, whose health severely deteriorated in recent months, died after being taken out of the facility by his family,” he added.

Abu Faour said that not all families have been cooperating with the ministry. “Unfortunately, many families have not been answering our phone calls and they refuse to meet their children at the facility,” said Abu Faour, adding that it remains the responsibility of the ministry to ensure the children’s safety.

“We will not hesitate to take legal action either against the families who refuse to cooperate or against the association,” the minister added.

“It is completely unacceptable for the person who cleans the facility to also be the one who gives medication to the disabled,” the Social Affairs minister continued, “and yet officials at the association didn’t see anything wrong with their work.”

There are 76 association-run centers that care for disabled Lebanese across the country. However, only 56 of those centers are under the umbrella of the National Association of Parents and Institutions for the Disabled.

“The institution that is the subject of the reports is not part of the National Association of Parents and Institutions for the Disabled ... we hope all institutions become part of the national association in the near future,” Sami Hammoud, secretary-general of the NAPID told The Daily Star.

Hammoud said that the families of these disabled children were ultimately responsible for their care. “We are willing to help the ministry pressure these families to relocate their children as soon as possible,” he added.

Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb