The rape case in the psychiatric hospital: dangerous folly at the expense of the weak

The affair in which, according to the suspicion, a rapist is treated in a psychiatric ward by a detainee with a history of terrorist activity, raises a known and painful problem in the psychiatric system.

It is clear to everyone that something needs to move, and for that we need awareness, initiative and common sense.

Three components that are currently significantly lacking in the psychiatric system

Sharon Primor

12/01/2022

Wednesday, 12 January 2022, 13:04 Updated: 13:12

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

A terrorist impersonating a mentally ill man is accused of raping a discharged soldier in a psychiatric hospital (Walla system!)

The difficult affair revealed by Yoav Itiel on the Walla! Website, in which, according to the suspicion, a patient was raped in a psychiatric ward by a detainee with a history of terrorist activity, raises a known and painful problem in the psychiatric system: placing detainees and prisoners together with patients.

A rule in criminal law states that a person who has acted when he is in a state of mind that deprives him of control or judgment, will not be convicted but will be sent for treatment.

To find out if this is the case, the court sends the defendant for a look: a psychiatric examination in a hospital setting.

In many countries the test is performed in a detention center or clinic, as in most cases no special equipment or prolonged time is required, and if the case is very complex, defendants are sent to designated wards.

But in Israel, as in Israel, everything goes.

The data show that most defendants who claim insanity will be found fit to stand trial.

And what's going on in the meantime?

True, sometimes people with psychiatric illness get entangled and accidentally get into the criminal system, and some have no criminal behavior or violence at all.

But one does not have to be an expert to understand what might happen when a suspect with a background of violence, extortion and the like meets people in their most vulnerable situations.

And what happens when he recognizes that doctors and nurses face him without training or tools to deal with criminal violence.

More on Walla!

A terrorist impersonating a mental patient is accused of raping a discharged soldier in a psychiatric hospital

To the full article

Kfar Shaul Mental Health Hospital (Photo: Yoav Itiel)

People who are hospitalized in psychiatric wards are in particularly weakened personal and health conditions. They find out from their home, sometimes forcibly, ostensibly to protect them from everyday hardships. But absurdly they are forced to face the most horrible difficulty precisely in the ward room. To this must be added the already difficult problems in these departments: overcrowding, noise, inaction, harsh rules, harsh attitude on the part of the staff and loneliness. Some patients, as in the case revealed in the article, are not even able to understand the situation, and certainly not call for help and defend themselves because they are under the influence of heavy drugs.

In the last twenty years there has been a significant increase in the number of defendants being sent for examinations in psychiatric wards. About 1,260 people come every year under the direction of the courts and are very prominent in the landscape, they are the source of most cases of violence against patients and staff, as well as the introduction of drugs into wards. Therefore, there is a consensus among mental health organizations, rights organizations, hospital administrators and senior officials of the Ministry of Health that this is nonsense. A ticking bomb that even casts a stigma on the general public dealing with psychiatric illness.

So why continue with it?

First of all, the closed wards in psychiatric hospitals are always open.

For the courts, they are an easy and available solution that does not cost the court system money.

Defense attorneys do not mind trying, patients do not have a lobby, and hospitals that receive payment for hospitalization do not shout enough.

And most importantly, the psychiatric wards have always been the “black hole” of society.

The place to send and forget.

Every few months, severe cases of violence are exposed in them.

But if no one fires a staff member with a known history of harming patients, no one also cares that a patient who has been sexually assaulted and suffers from post-trauma is placed in a ward along with a rape defendant who is under observation or on a hospitalization order.

The suspect in the rape of the discharged soldier in Kfar Shaul (Photo: official website, -)

Addition is added to indifference. The psychiatric wards have been operating in the same way for over a hundred years, their managers asking for additional budgets for them and no one asks what the justification is for them to continue operating at all, even for the regular patients. This is despite the fact that their effectiveness has never been proven compared to intensive care in the community, the cost of treating them is significantly higher than alternative treatment solutions, and their harms often outweigh the benefits. Detainees looking with violent behavior and a criminal past are another obstacle in the survival game of the psychiatric wards.

The solution is simple: rights in criminal proceedings should be guaranteed to every defendant, but not at the expense of the weakest patients in the health care system.

A defendant who claims insanity should be examined in special clinics or detained.

Not in the usual care frameworks and not at the expense of the already meager health budget.

Anyone found unfit to stand trial and not violent or dangerous can be hospitalized in a regular psychiatric ward, but the rest will be treated in separate and designated wards.

And others who will be prosecuted even though they have a mental disability, are entitled to detention or imprisonment tailored to their needs.

Equally important, the injured party should be sued for systemic negligence.

Something needs to move, and for that it needs awareness, initiative and common sense.

Three components that are currently missing in relation to the psychiatric system.

The author is a lawyer who specializes in the rights of people with disabilities, and the initiator of the fight against conspiracies in a psychiatric hospitalization of an organization entitled

• news

• Opinions and interpretations

Tags

• Ounce

• Jerusalem