Public Story
Among Those Four Walls
Women admitted to the National Center for Mental Health share a history of violence and abuse at the back. Some danced thinking they were still inside the bars or brothels where they were sold like any other commodity, without realising where they had ended up. Others had lost looks, as if looking at a place that was not what they had in front of their eyes.
Others seemed healthy, but only because they had lost their memory because of too violent trauma. Usually the crises for them were manifested at night, so the doctors explained to me.
They are often found on the street and brought to the center. Abandoned without documents they will live indefinitely within the hospital.
With the 2017 health reform, mental illness will be integrated into the national health system. Many funds will be allocated to sensitise society against the stigma of people suffering from mental disorders. But for most of the women locked in this structure is too late. For them the future will be to live among those four walls.