Mental health patients demand government aid to healthcare program

Several beneficiaries of a state-sponsored mental health program took to the streets on Thursday to demand the government’s continued support to their out-patient care and treatment.

The Ministry of Health decided not to extend the program which ended back in February after two years of implementation. According to Karine Tukhikyan, the president of a local NGO implementing mental health projects, financial reasons were cited as a justification for not continuing the aid.

“The Government thus turns out to be cutting the budget at the expense of people. I don’t know to what extent it is humanistic to lose those people’s health. What their clarification says is that there are diseases to which that money needs to be directed. But is it right to compare one disease with another?” she told Tert.am at the protest site (outside the Government).

The program allowed the patients to receive Ziprex for free as part of their out-patient medical care.

Gurgen Avetisyan, a beneficiary who had joined the protest, said he used the Armenian production of the medicine which “really helped improve mental abilities.” “Now I get [another] Armenian medicine which is of a poor quality. I really don’t understand why they produce it at all.  I had been taking Ziprex for 10 years and was used to it. I learned and tried to do things, but now it’s different,” he said.