Who takes Care of Persons with Multiple Disabilities in Guatemala?

The situation of persons with multiple disabilities, many of them presenting mental disability, is so blurred in Guatemala. These persons have been deprived of all the rights they are entitled to and their destiny is marked by inhuman loneliness.

This conclusion can be arrived at by simple observation of the reality surrounding these persons, but the panorama becomes more defined as exhaustive analysis is made of typical cases.

As it usually happens, a case involving a person with disabilities was referred to our Office for the Defense of Persons with Disabilities of the Human Rights Attorneyship. The case concerned a very poor man, about 30 years old, profoundly deaf with psychiatric impairments. This man was brought to our office for help from a Senior Citizens Home administered by a Missionary Charity, where he had probably had become aggressive.

Accompanied by two missionaries, we took Tomás (as we called him) to the local mental health hospital. There, as soon as the doctor on duty notice that the man could not hear, he told us that he was not able to perform the mental evaluation because the tests involved oral skills. I immediately express my indignation: How could this so called physician deny a person's medical treatment just because the patient cannot hear?

Ping-pong

Worried about the implications of this situation, I began a small investigation into the center for the persons with multiple disabilities. The results were disheartening: We do not have any educational center for children with severe communication difficulties. On the other hand, there is no "attention protocol" for adults with multiple disabilities, Such panorama means that for persons with disabilities in Guatemala there is only: one treatment (the minimum) for deficiencies and the denial of fundamental rights of people.

We visited the only center for deaf and blind children with multiple disabilities in our country. There we found another example of how much needs to be done in this Central American country in order to comply with human rights for persons with disabilities. The director of this private school stated that they do not receive any support from public authorities. Boys and girls that come to this place are usually called "ping-pong." This is because they have been referred from one place to another, because they have been denied the treatment they need so much and are entitled to receive. The major weakness found is that the few services have a limited coverage and, on the other hand, persons with multiple disabilities are greatly stigmatized in our society. All of these factors, taken together, make inclusion into the family and the community very hard.

The situation of adults with extensive and multiple disabilities is even more disheartening. A case like Tomas is not infrequent. Usually this group of people are abandoned at institutions and soon are forgotten forever, they disappear from society. So that is how and why they become so vulnerable, they are under alarming risks of becoming the repeated victims of violations to human rights.

The most worrisome

It is no coincidence, that I was invited to deliver a lecture on the right to health for the medical personnel of the public health system. Some members of the national mental health hospital were present. They responded to my presentation of the Tomás case by saying: "There are no violations in that hospital center and treatment is provided accordingly."

I am amazed by such generalized lack of sensibility among these medical community. It reflects the extent to which there is stigma and prejudice against persons with psychiatric disabilities, more so persons with multiple disabilities.

Breaking the cycle

It is important to mention that the situation of persons with any disability, particularly those presenting multiple disabilities, is determined by and immersed within the circle of poverty and disability. To break this circle or cycle, we must address existing needs from a global perspective: foster structural changes to break the abuse of power, negligence, and discrimination.

We must learn to use our legal and judiciary instruments, because human rights and fundamental liberties are guaranteed within the Constitutions of our nations. And for the situations not contemplated, we may use the international instruments ratified and enforced in our region.

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