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Germany

Health Care Scandal: German Dementia Patients 'Kept Quiet' With The Wrong Drugs

To save time, money and staff, many German health facilities treat dementia patients with powerful drugs that serve no other purpose but to keep them quiet. By some estimates, the practice affects some 240,000 people in Germany.

In a Canadian nursing home. Similar facilities in Germany are facing grave accusations. (Vince Alongi)
In a Canadian nursing home. Similar facilities in Germany are facing grave accusations. (Vince Alongi)


*NEWSBITES

BERLIN-- A growing number of German dementia sufferers are being treated with antipsychotic drugs that calm them down but do nothing to treat their illness. Critics have used the provocative term "chemical rape" to denounce the practice.

According to Professor Gerd Glaeske of the University of Bremen's Center for Social Policies, handing out this type of medication without the permission of the patient or a relative of the patient is comparable to arbitrarily tying mental patients to a bed or chair.

Glaeske told Die Welt that many out-patients or residents of care facilities – possibly as many as 240,000 – are given drugs just to keep them quiet. "In these cases, the drugs ... save on personnel costs and give the homes greater profit margins," he said.

Glaeske cites British studies which suggest that in two out of three cases, strong neuroleptic drugs are being prescribed when they shouldn't be -- and wouldn't be necessary at all if the patient was receiving the proper care for his or her condition.

A German social rights association called VdK recommends increasing the amount invested in care to stop this "mass phenomenon." "Dementia patients are very care-intensive because they have a very strong need to move around, and often try to run away," said Ulrike Mascher, the association's president.

In the next few years, many care homes in Germany are going to have to expand to deal with the country's rising numbers of dementia patients. Pilot projects have shown that it is easier to care for patients in small groups of five as opposed to groups of 20, which is the approach taken in many facilities.

Germany's Ministry of Health stated that while the medication prescribed to dementia patients is the responsibility of their doctors, new reforms planned by Health Minister Daniel Bahr are aimed to improve cooperation between doctors and care homes.

Members of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) have criticized the government, saying it bears a great deal of responsibility for this scandal. SPD critics say far too little has been done guarantee financing for proper care of dementia patients.

Read the full story in German by Anette Dowideit

Photo - Vince Alongi

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

Editor's note: An earlier version of the article featured a headline we have since determined to be unnecessarily provocative.

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Geopolitics

Why The Latin American Far Left Can't Stop Cozying Up To Iran's Regime

Among the Islamic Republic of Iran's very few diplomatic friends are too many from Latin America's left, who are always happy to milk their cash-rich allies for all they are worth.

Image of Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's embassy in Tehran/Facebook
Bahram Farrokhi

-OpEd-

The Latin American Left has an incurable anti-Yankee fever. It is a sickness seen in the baffling support given by the socialist regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela or Bolivia to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which to many exemplifies clerical fascism. And all for a single, crass reason: together they hate the United States.

The Islamic Republic has so many of the traits the Left used to hate and fight in the 20th century: a religious (Islamic) vocation, medieval obscurantism, misogyny... Its kleptocratic economy has turned bog-standard class divisions into chasmic inequalities reminiscent of colonial times.

This support is, of course, cynical and in line with the mandates of realpolitik. The regional master in this regard is communist Cuba, which has peddled its anti-imperialist discourse for 60 years, even as it awaits another chance at détente with its ever wealthy neighbor.

I reflected on this on the back of recent remarks by Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, the 64-year-old Romina Pérez Ramos. She must be the busiest diplomat in Tehran right now, and not a day goes by without her going, appearing or speaking somewhere, with all the publicity she can expect from the regime's media.

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