Brigades toured neighborhoods of Esmeraldas to detect patients with mental problems and take them to treatment

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For fifteen days Margarita P. wandered through the streets and squares of the city of Esmeraldas. She asked for money and although on many occasions people gave her clothes, she used to walk around naked.

She lives in the Puerto Limón neighborhood, suffers from schizophrenia and has dedicated herself to drug use. Faced with this situation, the social organization Palenque Progresista structured the godfather plan to help this woman.

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Warner Mina, president of this group, said that Margarita’s situation was depressing when she was seen walking the streets and nobody cared about her mental health.

Meanwhile, Aurora M., 60, her relatives had to confine her to her own home due to her aggressiveness and the problems she caused the residents of the Voluntad de Dios neighborhood, south of the city, commented her daughter Tatiana.

The Council for the Protection of Rights of the Municipality of Esmeraldas, the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) and the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES) approached these two people for their psychiatric treatment at the Delfina Torres hospital.

Nelson Valencia, director of the Council for the Protection of Rights, said that thirteen people in similar circumstances were treated last year and the hope is to reach about 100 in 2022.

But the lack of money, medicines or the neglect of their relatives mean that some patients stop treatment and return to the street situation.

“Unfortunately, the Esmeraldas Delfina Torres South Hospital does not have the appropriate medications for Margarita to receive the treatment she deserves in these cases. The Palenque Progressive organization is visiting people and institutions from Esmeralda to donate the necessary medicines,” said Warner Mina.

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Ángela T., a mother of a family who was able to overcome alcohol consumption a decade ago, commented that her life was hard for 26 years and that thanks to her mother’s persistence she was able to be admitted to a clinic in Quinindé, where she later recovered. three months of treatment.

The city of Esmeraldas does not have a mental rest home and the MSP has one for people with alcohol and drug addictions, on Luis Vargas Torres Island. (I)