CPT _2010_ 82 - EN - Report Armenia 2010 _2_ - The Government ...

- 63 -F. Social care homes1. Preliminary remarks155. The delegation visited for the first time in Armenia a social care establishment, namelyVardenis Nursing Home (“Internat”). The only establishment of its kind in Armenia, it is under theauthority of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The nursing home had been moved to itscurrent main site in 1993, a renovated former obstetric hospital building from the late 1980s situatedon the edge of Vardenis. A second satellite site, about 2 km away, in the town, had been opened in2008 in renovated facilities of the former district hospital.With an official capacity of 370, at the time of the visit the institution was accommodating390 residents 101 (169 men and 221 women), aged from 18 to 78 years. Residents wereaccommodated in seven wards: two male wards, two female wards and one mixed ward on the mainsite, and another two mixed wards on the satellite site. Each ward had a capacity of some 50residents.Approximately 60% of the residents suffered from schizophrenia, 35% from learningdisabilities and a few from organic brain damage or dementia. Residents from both of the maindiagnostic groups were in mixed wards. Further, there were reportedly plans to create a new 40-bedward, which would allow the waiting list and the overcrowding on some of the existing wards to bereduced.2. Ill-treatment156. Most of the residents interviewed by the CPT’s delegation spoke positively of the attitude ofhealth-care staff. Further, relations between health-care staff and patients, as well as between thepatients themselves, appeared quite relaxed.That said, the delegation heard a few allegations of physical ill-treatment (e.g. slapping) ofresidents by ward-based staff; the ill-treatment alleged was said to occur in the context of residentsbecoming agitated or disobeying the staff’s orders. Further, several residents spoke of occasionalrude behaviour and verbal abuse by ward-based staff. The delegation was informed by themanagement that in May 2009, five staff members had been dismissed in relation to physical illtreatmentof a resident.101Seventeen residents were on leave at the time of the visit. Regarding turnover, the delegation was informedthat beds becoming vacant following discharge or deaths were quickly filled with new admissions, there beinga waiting list in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.