The 10-page proposal on how a supervisory authority for psychiatric hospitals should operate was written by Durajová. She felt forced to write it because of her experiences with patients and the clearly "inadequate" oversight she witnessed. Although monitoring is currently undertaken by the national Ombudsman's Office, according to Durajová, it lacks the necessary resources to do a thorough job.

"The monitoring mechanism should provide protection of the rights of people who are de jure or de facto deprived of their personal freedom in psychiatric hospitals," states the material, which, together with other collected reports of cases, arrived at the Ministry of Health in July for further consideration."One day I was restless and the staff strapped me to a bed. Even worse, they also girded me across the chest with a sheet so hard that I choked. The staff left immediately, unaware and not interested at all, that I was fighting for my life," said 30-year-old Radek Deak, recounting one of the terrible moments he endured in a Czech psychiatric hospital.

Deak went through six sanatoriums across the country since 1999, when he began his treatment. As he described, everywhere he met with discriminating and disproportionately severe treatment. He also remembers the unpleasant moments when he, completely stripped, faced insults from the staff about the size of his testicles. More serious, however, was the pain he experienced from excessive use of electroshock therapy or strapping.

From the hospital, with scars

"I could not even breathe, let alone call for help. To save my life, I had to get out of the straps. Very painfully, I succeeded by covering my wrists in blood with the iron. I have a scar to this day," he says further in his testimony.

The League of Human Rights (LHR), a non-governmental organization, collected more stories of people being treated in psychiatric wards. How many of them will be read by government officials remains to be seen.

Patients frequently turned to lawyers, however, after the staff used restraints excessively as a means to punish patients. Patients also complain about poor hygiene, lack of privacy or violence by staff. They also mentioned sexual harassment. It bothers them that they can not make decisions about their treatment, and that they are obliged to be under strong medication.

Unannounced visits

The League of Human Rights is calling for more regular checks of the facilities. "It is essential that the monitoring authority at any time, unannounced, may enter the facility, visit any department and talk to any patient in private," says LHR lawyer Zuzana Durajová.

The organization's proposal is, however, considered highly controversial by some doctors and experts from the fields of psychiatry:

"This proposal is based on the assumption that psychiatrists hurt their patients more often than other doctors, and the patients must be particularly well protected and doctors supervised by special bodies that are, of course, paid from state funds. I find this assumption insulting," said Petr Mozny, the director of the psychiatric hospital in the city of Kromeriz.

Control is needed

"I see no reason why the psychiatric patients and healthcare professionals who work in the field of providing care to the mentally ill should be subjected to the special supervision of a newly established authority," said Mozny.

Deak's testimony highlights more controversial practices. "Every day, very early in the morning, the nurses bring all patients into the hallway. Patients are sedated and sleepy after strong medication, and overnight sleep is not enough for them. You have nowhere to rest during the day, so almost all the patients lie down on the dirty linoleum floor. Many times there are fights for what little space there is," he said.

The 10-page proposal on how a supervisory authority for psychiatric hospitals should operate was written by Durajová. She felt forced to write it because of her experiences with patients and the clearly "inadequate" oversight she witnessed. Although monitoring is currently undertaken by the national Ombudsman's Office, according to Durajová, it lacks the necessary resources to do a thorough job.

"The monitoring mechanism should provide protection of the rights of people who are de jure or de facto deprived of their personal freedom in psychiatric hospitals," states the material, which, together with other collected reports of cases, arrived at the Ministry of Health in July for further consideration.

Patients afraid to complain

Durajová believes that one of the reasons for the supervision is the fact that patients in hospitals have nowhere to turn to with their complaints, or they are afraid to reach out to staff for fear of revenge. Her suspicions are confirmed by Radek Deak:

"I was afraid that the complaint would not help me, on the contrary, that it would hurt me, because doctors and other staff, of course, support each other mutually and I am still a fool, who is just making stuff up."

This report by Sarka Kabatova was first published on Lidovky.cz.