[LINK] When can we switch from war to medical assistance?

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

War Takes Toll on Baghdad Psychiatric Hospital 

The Ibn Rushid psychiatric hospital in central Baghdad, once a jewel
of Iraq’s medical system, has been plunged by the war into archaic 
conditions.  By ERICA GOODE  www.nytimes.com  May 20, 2008 (snip)

BAGHDAD .. Only 4 of 11 psychiatrists remain at Ibn Rushid; the rest have 
moved north to Kurdistan, where the risk of kidnapping or assassination is 
lower, or have fled the country.

The Baghdad psychiatric hospital, one of two in Iraq, provides short-term 
treatment and was once considered a jewel of the country’s medical system, 
renowned for its modern care. 

Patients from as far away as Syria and Jordan came for treatment, and the 
hospital’s 75 beds were always full. Specialists from Western countries 
visited to teach the latest forms of treatment. But Ibn Rushid’s fortunes 
have fallen with those of the broken city around it ..
 
In the morning, Dr. Hussain sees patients in the hospital’s outpatient 
clinic: a woman who became psychotic shortly after the Americans entered 
Baghdad in 2003, convinced that she would be hit by a bullet fired from 
the television set; an 18-year-old who watched a cellphone video of a 
close friend being tortured and killed and later became so violent that 
his family tied him down with a rope. He assesses each case in a few 
minutes, writes a prescription or orders a test, and moves on.

Given what the patients face in their daily lives — car bombs, killings, 
fighting between militia members and Iraqi and American forces — relapses 
are frequent. 

There is no time for people to recover, Dr. Hussain said, and once they 
do, “there is a new stress, grief after grief, losses after losses, 
violence after violence.”

On a recent morning, a 15-year-old girl brought in her mother who said,
"I am here for treatment because I want to die all the time .. I wish to 
commit suicide." 

Her husband left one day to visit his sister in another town and never 
came back. She heard that he had been killed, but she could not go to the 
morgue to identify the body.

Ten days later, three gunmen went to her house in Baghdad, demanding money 
and asking if she was Shiite or Sunni. 

Now, she added, "Everything makes me sad. My houses are gone. My husband 
is gone. Everything sweet in this life is gone."

A few weeks ago, a mortar shell landed a few yards from the hospital. 

One day, Dr. Hussain found himself the only psychiatrist on duty. Fighting 
in the city had prevented the others from coming to work. 

Another morning, he arrived to find the wards all but empty — the 
patients, frightened by the clashes, had gone. 

A plan by the American government to send teams of Iraqi psychiatrists, 
psychologists and social workers, including Dr. Hussain, to the United 
States for training has stirred great excitement. But the program, 
originally scheduled for last fall, has been delayed repeatedly, and the 
participants were recently notified of another postponement.. 

Anwar J. Ali contributed reporting 
--

Regards all 
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia