On 5 February 2019, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria visited the rehabilitated Surami Mental Health Clinic and viewed the results of the rehabilitation on the ground.

Nino Lomjaria made her first visit to the Surami Mental Health Clinic in March 2018, when she termd the infrastructure and conditions of the facility as degrading for the beneficiaries and recommended the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs to immediately ensure the patients’ placement in an environment adequate for their human dignity.

It is welcome that following the Public Defender's recommendations and the spread of the photos showing the patients’ hard conditions, certain changes were carried out in the management of the clinic and large-scale rehabilitation was launched. As a result, the roof of the building, communications and internal infrastructure have been fully renovated; the issue relating to food facilities has been regulated. However, access to physical environment remains a problem.

Despite the improvement of patients’ living conditions in the Surami mental health institution, the Public Defender emphasized that the placement of patients with mental health problems in large-scale institutions could not be described as a high quality protection of their rights. Serious challenges remain in this direction in the country. 10 large mental health institutions are currently functioning in the country, the conditions and therapeutic environment of which cannot ensure the protection of patients’ rights and dignity.

Nino Lomjaria hopes that the state agencies, which are responsible for determining state policies, will take effective steps to promote the process of deinstitutionalization and development of community-oriented, including family type services, in the direction of mental health as soon as possible.