Image: VOLKER Weihbold
This is “a completely wrong setting for this group of people,” said Martin Marlovits, stv. Head of Adult Representation, in connection with the case of a 93-year-old with dementia who ended up in a prison in Vienna after an attack on her nurse. The purpose of the accommodation is treatment and “improvement” in the sense of reducing the level of danger. “However, these people often do not even understand why they are accommodated and cannot provide the required compliance,” Marlovits pointed out. “So they have no prospect of being released or even relaxed, which in turn leads to extremely long accommodation times.” It is regrettable that the recently adopted law on the reform of the enforcement of measures does not provide for any exceptions. On the contrary, it notes that the circle of those affected should remain unchanged.
Number of sick people has tripled within 20 years
For many years, the representation network has acted as a judicial adult representative for people who are being held in prison and who are considered to be mentally unsound due to their mental illness. “Their number has more than tripled in the last 20 years. We also represent some people who have an intellectual disability or suffer from dementia and who, for example, were admitted to care facilities after aggressive incidents,” the association reported on Monday.
The 93-year-old, who was suffering from dementia, attacked her 24-hour nurse on March 27 in her apartment in Vienna-Wieden because she had mistook the woman for a burglar. The nurse was not injured, and the elderly woman was initially admitted to the psychiatric ward of the Landstrasse clinic. But then a detention and legal protection judge made the “completely wrong” decision, according to Michael Dohr, the legal representative of the elderly, namely to temporarily place them in a forensic therapeutic center. The woman was taken to the Wilhelmshöhe special facility, a branch of the Vienna-Josefstadt prison that caters to elderly prisoners. The 93-year-old, who has been suffering from severe dementia for six years, stayed there for more than two weeks, was completely disoriented and suffered panic attacks. According to the lawyer, the criminal proceedings against the woman have now been discontinued.
Source: Nachrichten
