A few weeks ago, the editorial office of "ElitExpert" received an appeal from the residents of a house on Zaporizka Street in Odesa, regarding a seemingly private problem that people could not cope with on their own. However, in the process of investigating the situation, it became clear that such cases are far from isolated - they are only the tip of the iceberg of a larger social problem that tens of thousands of Ukrainians face.
The situation, at first glance, looked simple: in one of the apartments of the building, until recently, a mentally unhealthy person lived, which was confirmed by a medical diagnosis. Sometimes the man behaved adequately, sometimes not, and then the neighbors had to call the police. The law enforcement officers held preventive conversations with him, brought him to administrative responsibility or even took him to the hospital, and so, in a circle, everything has been going on for many years.
THE RIGHT TO AN APARTMENT
Ruslan F. lived in a house on Zaporizhia since childhood. After the death of his mother, 12 years ago, he continued to live in an apartment with his stepfather. In 2020, the stepfather sold his part of the apartment, Ruslan allegedly did the same. We say "allegedly" here, because some of the neighbors are sure that fraudulent activities may have been carried out with the apartment, because due to his unstable mental state, Ruslan could not be aware of his actions. However, the facts are as follows: since 2020, another person, Mykhailo K., is considered the owner of this apartment in the Register of Rights to Real Estate.
Moreover, according to the information of the Odesa City Council's health department, Ruslan is officially capable of legal action, which means he could sign documents on his own behalf and do whatever he wanted with his real estate.
Also, according to the official response of the GUNP in the Odesa region, law enforcement officers questioned Ruslan about possible unlawful actions against him, but he testified that he has no complaints against the new owner of the apartment, Mykhailo K..
And according to the local precinct and condominium board, after the sale of this apartment, Ruslan was removed from registration in it.
In addition, the editorial office has documents indicating that instead of his part of the apartment, Ruslan received a room in the commune at 1 Teplichnyi lane.
We will leave the right to find out whether there was any fraudulent intent in all these actions or not, for the time being, to lawyers and law enforcement agencies.
AUTUMN AGGRAVATION
Let's just emphasize that despite the completed donation agreement and the fact that the apartment on Zaporizhia already belonged to another person, Ruslan continued to live in it, and he lived in terrible conditions, which is supported by video evidence. A logical question arises - why did the new owner allow him to live in his apartment and turn it into an unlivable state with disconnected batteries, moldy walls and knee-deep garbage?
There is no logical explanation for this fact, unless you remember that the period for protesting real estate transactions is three years, and it will expire in the coming days. Perhaps this explains the "tolerance" of the new owner.
Strange guests periodically appeared in the "bad" apartment, and on October 22, a corpse was discovered there. However, according to the police report, the death of the "guest" came from natural causes.
This tragic incident coincided with another worsening of Ruslan's mental state, who began to behave inappropriately and riot, after which the policemen who arrived on call called a medical team and sent him to the Odesa Regional Medical Center for Mental Health.
At the same time, the head of Odesa District Police Department No. 1, Serhii Volkov, in a comment to "ElitExpert" noted that residents had previously complained about Ruslan to the police, as a result of which protocols on administrative offenses under Article 173 were drawn up against him on several occasions.
THROWN OUT ON THE STREET
While Ruslan underwent another course of treatment, representatives of the local condominium closed the door to the apartment, which he continues to consider his own. As Olena Loseva, the head of the management board of the condominium, told ElitExpert, this was done at the request of the new home owner.
Thus, after his return from the hospital, Ruslan could no longer get into the apartment and began to live on the street. When asked why he came here instead of going to the commune on Teplichnaya, the neighbors we interviewed claim that Ruslan returns to the place where he grew up and lived with his mother - "like a dog returns to its kennel."
Caring neighbors fed the person left on the street, provided him with simple clothes, wrote dozens of applications to identify him at least in some boarding school, but all to no avail.
MENTALLY ILL OUT OF CONTROL
At the same time, as "ElitExpert" managed to find out during this investigation, such a situation could have been avoided if it were not for the Order of the Ministry of Health No. 1063 dated 13.05.2019/22/2007, which literally put the survival of people with mental deviations and caused huge problems to their relatives or even neighbors, as in this case. This document declares as invalid the order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine dated January 20, XNUMX No. XNUMX "On the approval of the Instructions for the organization of dispensary and advisory supervision of persons suffering from mental disorders, when providing outpatient psychiatric care».
One of the most controversial consequences of this decision was the introduction of amendments to the current Law of Ukraine "On Psychiatric Care", according to which dispensary and consultative supervision of persons suffering from mental disorders ceased to be mandatory! This means that thousands and thousands of mentally unhealthy people, including those who are socially dangerous, are now not subject to any control by medical and social services.
According to the new version of the law, psychiatric help can be provided to a person suffering from a mental disorder only with his written consent or by a court decision, if he poses a danger to himself or others. That is, the patient now has the right to refuse treatment, even if he suffers from a severe and chronic mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychosis, etc. It does not even take into account that such diseases require constant medical monitoring, treatment, social support and rehabilitation. Is it necessary to say that this threatens the deterioration of the patient's condition - such people can harm not only themselves, but also their loved ones, neighbors or just any random passers-by.
With the law does not provide any mechanisms for monitoring the health and behavior of such patients in the event that they refused treatment or were already discharged from the hospital. Previously, people like Ruslan were subject to regular examination by a psychiatrist, receiving treatment and prevention recommendations, as well as keeping special records in psychiatric institutions. This made it possible to detect the deterioration of the patients' condition in a timely manner, prevent possible complications and relapses, and also ensure their social adaptation and protection.
Now no one knows where and in what condition such people are, which, firstly, creates a serious threat to public safety, and secondly, violates the rights and interests of both the patients themselves and the people around them.
Doctors and relatives of patients have been sounding the alarm for several years, demanding the restoration of dispensary and consultative supervision over patients, but the war that began postponed the solution to this problem for a long time.
TO BE CONTINUED
The sharp deterioration of the weather in Odessa and the cold weather made Ruslan's life on the street unbearable. And only a wide public outcry, caused by the activity of neighbors, journalists and volunteers, helped to take the unhealthy person off the street. Ruslana agreed to host the "Nove Nebo" social center in the suburbs of Odessa.
Everyone understands that this shelter is temporary. A sick person needs not only a permanent roof, but also the observation of a doctor, serious medicines capable of maintaining his mental balance. And most importantly, we need the services of experienced lawyers who will be able to find out what really happened to Ruslan's apartment.
"ElitExpert" will also continue its journalistic investigation and invites the cooperation of everyone who is ready to shed light on this confusing and sad story - the story of the life of a "little man" in the big "criminal" Odessa.
Oleksandr Shorokhov, Olena Ovchinnikova,
