Rest areas will be given to PNI patients

In St. Petersburg, the authorities are embarking on a large-scale modernization of the city’s psycho-neurological boarding schools (PNI). It is proposed to organize accommodation for 2–3 guests in a room instead of 20, organize recreation areas, kitchens, and call the PNI itself a “house of joint residence”. In April, the founder of the Vera Foundation, Nyuta Federmesser, spoke about the death of seven children from exhaustion in the city’s PNI No. 10. After that, law enforcement agencies opened a criminal case and began checking the institution.

Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Natalya Chechina held the first meeting of the working group to modernize the network of neuropsychiatric boarding schools. The current system of PNI “requires significant changes in the light of current trends,” said Ms. Chechina. “It is necessary to prepare residents and employees of boarding schools to understand the upcoming changes, but at the same time it is necessary to strictly adhere to the plan and deadlines,” she stressed. The press service of Smolny reported that the comprehensive reform will include an increase in the area of ​​the institutions themselves and staff, additional equipment for boarding schools, the organization of a service for protecting the rights of people with mental illness and “creating comfortable living conditions.”

The change starts with a name change. The authorities intend to replace the name “psycho-neurological boarding school” with “house of cohabitation”, “building” with “dormitory” (male and female), “ward” for patients with “rooms” for living.

“Many of these people are always in PNI, it seems that they live all the time in the hospital. This is incorrect and greatly affects their mentality, ”Ekaterina Mashkova, head of the regional executive committee of the Popular Front in St. Petersburg, explained to Kommersant.

It is proposed to organize accommodation for 2-3 people in a room instead of the previous 20, arrange recreation areas, a kitchen, etc., which will relieve the administrative block. The roadmap also included issues of salaries and staffing. “When the number is brought to federal standards, the work will become easier. If today a person serves 10-15 patients, then it is clear that he simply cannot cope physically. And it doesn’t matter if he gets 40 thousand or 60 thousand. We asked (Smolny.— “b”) increase the budget for boarding schools by 2 billion a year,” Ms. Mashkova explained.

There are 14 state psycho-neurological and nursing homes for the elderly in St. Petersburg. There is also a special boarding school for disabled people and citizens of retirement age released from places of deprivation of liberty. The residents of these institutions are on state security. However, there are not enough beds for everyone, potential clients are enrolled in a queue.

Public discussion around the state of affairs in the system flared up after the scandal associated with PNI No. 10 in St. Petersburg. In April 2023, the founder of the Vera Foundation and a member of the central headquarters of the Popular Front, Nyuta Federmesser reported about the death in a boarding school of at least seven children with severe multiple developmental disorders (SMND). She clarified that the reasons were their exhaustion and insufficient care due to a shortage of staff.

According to Ms. Federmesser, children with SMDD need a separate medical post and special nutrition, but due to a lack of staff, there is only one employee for several children who does not have time to “feed everyone, change clothes, take a walk with them.”

At the same time, volunteers were not allowed to work in the PNI, Ms. Federmesser argued.

According to the Popular Front, the TFR organized 16 inspections of PNI No. 10. They touched, among other things, on the activities of Rospotrebnadzor and relevant city committees, but a direct connection between the failure to fulfill their obligations by these departments, which could lead to the death of patients, has not yet been established. At the same time, the investigation revealed violations of fire and food safety, as well as a lack of staffing work.

As Nyuta Federmesser told Kommersant, it was stated at the meeting that the information that served as the basis for these checks was not confirmed. “I would like to know what check would confirm the lack of care, the shortage of hands and the fact that the state of people’s health has worsened, and some have died due to poor-quality care at PNI No. 10,” Ms. Federmesser noted in this regard. neither Roszdravnadzor, nor the Ministry of Emergency Situations, nor other inspection bodies, most likely, set themselves the task of establishing this fact. And they could only see the picture that was drawn for them in the PNI, and not the one that had been there for several years.” According to her, “the issue of food and the admission of volunteers to feed in the PNI for people who cannot serve themselves on their own has not yet been closed.”

Andrey Kucherov, St. Petersburg