The Ministry of Health has prepared an order prohibiting dating during forced treatment

The Ministry of Health of Russia has developed draft orders, according to which the heads of psychiatric clinics will be able to limit patients’ right to visits, as well as notify their relatives about sending them to compulsory treatment by e-mail and SMS.

As noted by the “That’s how” program, the current legislation concerning psychiatric care provides, among other things, the right of patients to correspondence, meetings with visitors and communication with a lawyer. The Ministry of Health proposes to change these rules.

One of the orders developed by the department allows the chief doctor of a medical institution or the head of a department to limit the patient’s number of visitors and the circle of people with whom he can meet.

Human rights activists believe that in conditions where opposition activists are sent to forced treatment, such restrictions can become a new instrument of pressure on them.

At least twenty active opponents of the current government and, in particular, of Russian military aggression against Ukraine are currently undergoing compulsory psychiatric treatment.

Thus, in February of this year, anti-war activist Maksym Lypkan, accused of spreading “fakes” about the Russian army on the Internet, was sent to forced treatment.

In the same month, Olga Suvorova, a member of the initiative group of ex-presidential candidate Ekaterina Duntsova, was sent to a psychiatric hospital for a forensic medical examination, since she was “fixated on the desire to help others” and “actively participated in public life”, which, as stated in the decision , is a “deviation from the way of life of an ordinary person.”