CAIRO: Patients in Al-Abassiya, Al-Khanka and Helwan mental health facilities are slated to obtain national identification cards following a year-long campaign initiated by the Egyptian Center for Development and Human Rights (ECDHR). The unprecedented move, to be implemented across 17 mental institutions, will grant patients greater social and political rights. The project is being carried out by the civil affairs authority of the Interior Ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Health. Head of Al-Abassiya Mental Hospital Manal Kamel El-Attar told Daily News Egypt that the campaign began by collecting the personal data of all patients, but that it faced difficulties gathering the data of patients whose identity is unknown. Around 1,700 patients at Al-Abbasiya Hospital are currently in the process of having their national IDs issued, according to El-Attar. El-Attar said that the new mental health laws protect mental health patients by enabling them to exercise their social and political rights without having to have a proxy, which may lead to an infringement on these rights. In addition, the new laws will abolish limitations currently faced by mental patients, such as denying them release from hospital upon recovery. According the new laws, patients will now have a say in the kind of treatment they receive. Director of the administration for the protection of mental health patients, and member of the national council for mental health, Moody Zaki, said that patients are asked to review their personal information on their IDs and to give back their old IDs in return for the new ones. According to Zaki, the Ministry of Health will cover the application fee for national IDs. Meanwhile, the Civil Affairs Authority will finance the cost of arranging on-site units at the hospitals where the IDs will be processed and issued. Last year, the head of ECDHR Joseph Ibrahim Saad called on the Civil Affairs Authority, the National Council for Human Rights, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Health to consider his proposal. Saad told Daily News Egypt that most mental health patients do not carry a national ID either because they have lost it or they do not realize its importance. ECDHR also called for issuing voting cards for patients in mental hospitals and for setting up polling stations inside the hospitals to ensure that the patients get a chance to voice their opinion on public issues.
