Filmed in 1995 by achilleasv
The Asylum of Leros (Colony of Mentally Ill) was established in 1959, taking over the military installations left on the Greek island by the Italians from the Second World War. The purpose was to contain all psychiatric patients from all Greek mental health instituitions, who were deemed untreatable, to one single confinement space.
The asylum grew rapidly as “difficult” patients were shipped to Leros and by the 1980s as many as 4,000 patients were held there. Political prisoners had also been incarcerated there, during the military dictatorship in Greece (Greek junta 1967-1974). The staff were not doctors or nurses and had no medical training. They were local islanders and were used as guards.
The inmates were systematically beaten, even tortured and crushed of whatever sensibilities they once had. In the 80s Leros’ asylum has received significant journalistic attention.
In September of 1989, the London Observer published details of horrific conditions at the Leros asylum, describing it a “concentration camp”. In 1990 the BBC filmed inside the asylum. The documentary “Island of Outcasts” (Channel 4) brought attention to these horrendous human rights abuses.
As Leros’ conditions generally mirror those of the nation’s other public mental hospitals, the last twenty years the psychiatric care system in Greece is undergoing a transformation of its service network, propelled to a great extent by recommendations and funding from the European Union. The new direction is toward deinstitutionalisation and a community-care approach. However, twenty years since the beginning of the psychiatric reform in Greece, there is a threat for people with mental health problems to return in mental hospitals due to severe financial problems of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Units as the Greek Ministry of Health is unable to correspond to its obligations, all thanks to the Troika!
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