Mental health center in León serves more than 10,000 patients
Leon, Guanajuato.- In the first quarter of this year, the Comprehensive Mental Health Care Center (Caisame) of Lion It has treated 10 thousand 332 patients in outpatient consultation, that is, they are checked and go home.
That’s how he made it known Ana Bertha Meza Perezdirector of that health center, who commented that some were referred from other mental health care centers in the state, others were interned in the same caisame.
In interview with A.Mlisted the top 5 mental illnesses treated at this center:
- Generalized anxiety disorders
- depressive disorders
- Schizophrenia
- Substance use disorders
- Bipolar disorder and personality disorders
The treatment for these conditions depends on each patient, and they receive psychological and psychiatric care.
Through social work, the family is spoken to so that they help the patient adhere to the treatment, and if this is fulfilled, the success rate is 68%.
“Rather than dealing with this, they have to learn to live with it (mental illness), just as diabetes has to be controlled in order to live with it. What in diabetes is an alteration of the pancreas, here it is a biochemical disorder, coupled with the social context”.
The doctor Ana Bertha Meza clarified that the temporary hospitalization of outpatients occurs only when crises occur.
“The criteria for hospitalization are: when the patient is at risk of his or her life or that of a family member, or when a psychotic outbreak occurs.”
The hospitalization time depends on each case, in general it is an average of 18 days. Upon graduation, we work with the family on the importance of adherence to treatment.
They have been hospitalized for more than 20 years
The Comprehensive Mental Health Care Center (Caisame) of León has 17 psychiatric patients permanently hospitalized.
Of these, the oldest has been there for 30 years, and the most recent for 20. They will stay for life because they have no relatives or someone to take care of them outside the center.
It is not that they have been abandoned, but that they are people who at the time were referred by the Policemanfor him Public ministry or the DIFFthat is, they arrived alone and without identity.
Some were homeless who couldn’t give more than their names and others were sent from other states years ago. There are 14 men and 3 women, all over 50 years old.
so reported Ana Bertha Meza Perezdirector of the center, in an interview with A.Mwho recalled that when she took office, in December 2014, there were 21 hospitalized patients.
Internment is the exception
Meza Pérez clarified that these hospitalized patients are the exception, because since 2011 or 2012, the old San Pedro del Monte Psychiatric Hospital turned into the caisameaccording to a decree published in the Official State Government Newspaper.
And it changed from the previous model of medical attention, called “asylum”, that is, of admitting patients, to the outpatient model, that is, they only attend a consultation and return home, and short-stay hospitalization only when there are crises.
“These patients live here because it was no longer possible for them to be cured. Mental disorders have no cure. Treatment is aimed at stabilization, at control throughout life. The main objective is the stabilization of the patient and the integration of her to the family or to work”.
The director of caisame He explained that a typical day for these patients is: the younger ones get up and bathe between 7:30 and 8 in the morning, because the older ones bathe last.
Their vital signs are taken, they are given their medications, they eat breakfast and their teeth are brushed.
Then they are divided into several groups: some are taken to a psychiatric consultation, others to a psychological consultation, others go to different rooms for specialized therapy and others to physical activities.
Then comes the taking of signs in the evening shift, which enters between 1:30 and 2 in the afternoon, the administration of medications, food at 1:30 in the afternoon, brushing teeth, therapy and physical activity.
At 11 in the morning and at 5 in the afternoon they eat snacks. And at 7 pm is dinner. At the end, signs and medication are taken, then they go to sleep.
These inmates are also cared for by a group of specialists in Cardiology, Internal Medicine, Nutrition and Dermatology.
He mentioned that for years the Public ministry and more recently the State Commission for the Search of Disappeared Persons They send requests to detect if any unlocated person is in this place, as well as looking for them in the rest of the hospitals.
“We got to have more than two thousand trades of people who are wanted in the year,” he revealed.
So far, they haven’t found anyone.
MCMH