The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published today a report on its ad hoc visit to Greece, which took place from 8 to 11 November 2022, together with the response of the Greek authorities.
The main objective of the visit was to examine the treatment and living conditions of persons held in the Korydallos Psychiatric Hospital for prisoners (the Hospital).
The CPT found that to all intents and purposes the Hospital remains a prison both in its design and functioning. Further, the promised transfer of responsibility of the hospital to the Ministry of Health has still not taken place. The patients in the Hospital are held in overcrowded and dilapidated rooms and offered few purposeful activities. Treatment was based almost exclusively on pharmacotherapy with no genuine occupational therapy activities on offer. There were no individual treatment plans in place and the record keeping was poor. The situation was made worse by the dire staffing arrangements; there was no resident psychiatrist and only one fully trained nurse in place for 170 patients. The day-to-day management of the hospital was left in the hands of a small team of dedicated prison officers with no formal training on mental health issues. The report also raises concerns over the absence of a restraint policy and of the way in which deaths in the Hospital are investigated.
