As explained to Presidential Communication, this Wednesday, July 13, the president of the Institute for Children and Adolescents of Uruguay (INAU), Pablo Abdala, the device will serve 25 adolescents between 13 and 18 years old with psychiatric disorders. “All this is part of a set of decisions, measures and a comprehensive plan that aims to improve the response from a human rights perspective,” he specified.
The INAU board will approve the creation of the center that integrates a series of changes and improvements that it plans from 2020 for the mental health area. The hierarch expressed that among these transformations is the inclusion of 30 therapeutic companions. In addition, he reported that the service will attend to the adolescents after their discharge from the psychiatric clinic and that they will remain there until they return to the assigned home or residence.
Abdala said that, in parallel to these measures, a call is being made to incorporate technicians associated with the social area: workers, educators, psychiatrists and psychologists. Likewise, he maintained that a greater demand is foreseen for companies and operators in terms of the provision of human resources, for a social response to problems, beyond the biomedical one.
In addition, he stated that the INAU approved the informed consent for children and adolescents with psychological disorders, so that they know the details of the treatments they receive and the reason why they are in a mental health center.
In this sense, he affirmed that the procedures that affect the complaints of abuse and mistreatment that may occur in the services are being improved. New protocols were also authorized to prevent excess medication and restraint of patients.
“To respond to this, procedures have been improved, we have acted, applied observations and sanctions,” he asserted.
In this regard, he pointed out that the INAU works together with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in a training plan for workers and operators in the area of mental health, with the aim of perfecting treatments.
