NHRC Recommends Reform of Hospitalization and Discharge Procedures, Presses Charges for Violating the Mental Health Act and for Noncompliance with Orders to Release Well Patients
The National Human Rights Commission reported the head administrators of two mental institutions to the public prosecutors’ office and issued a recommendation that procedural guidelines for hospitalization and release of patients be reformed. The recommendation follows petitions submitted in December 2003 by person A (male, 42) who worked at「X mental institution」 of Pusan City and again in March 2004 by persons B (male, 45) and C (male, 50) who both worked at「Y mental institution,」 also of Pusan. The petitions charged that the mental institutions were illegally and unjustly holding patients thereby denying patients their freedom of person.
In March 2004, the NHRC team—including outside mental health-related professionals—confirmed illegal actions on the part of the mental institutions after an on-site investigation in Pusan including interviews with witnesses and the petitioners. The fact-finding team received records for 2003 hospitalizations and releases. Selecting a random sample for interviews from the list of patients who were supposedly released and re-hospitalized within 10 days, the team found the following. About half of the patients who were supposedly released and re-hospitalized testified that they had never actually been released and were not allowed leave the mental institution throughout the year 2003. Among them, patient D and E testified that they had been institutionalized for over 10 years without being released even once. Further, patients F and G had received release orders from the Mental Health Adjudication Committee (which conducts examination for and evaluation of mental disorders) but had continued to be hospitalized in the mental institution regardless.
The investigation concluded that the mental hospitals’ actions not only violated the Mental Health Act, but also infringed article 12 of the Korean Constitution—which guarantees freedom of person to secure every one from imprisonment or bodily restraint—and article 10, the pursuit of happiness clause. The NHRC reported the mental institutions to the public prosecutors office and issued a recommendation to the two mental hospitals to reform their procedural guidelines for hospitalization and release.
On another note, since November 2003, a NHRC survey of the human rights conditions at mental institutions in Korea has been underway; survey findings will be released in mid-July. –End.
