LIFE
Amsterdam--Lots of lip service is given to the principle that the mentally ill are human beings, with needs that must be respected. But now a Dutch hospital has decided to put its mania where its mouth is.
The Vijverdal Regional Psycho-Medical Center, located in Maastricht in the Netherlands, has arranged for its patients to visit a brothel. "When you have a psychiatric illness, it usually means you'll never get laid again," says Martin de Vries, M.D., president of the World Federation for Mental Health. "We take patients into our charge and then have no way of returning their lives to them." The decision has touched off a furor among mental health professionals and the general public. Many of the initial negative reactions to the brothel arrangement came from the hospital's own doctors. Some patients and their families worried that the patients would be stigmatized for patronizing prostitutes.
But much of the response to the plan was positive. Supporters of the arrangement say they're pleased that mental health officials are no longer avoiding the hot-button issue of sex within institutional walls. Says hospital spokeswoman Cecile aan de Stegg: "We tend to think of these people as asexual or perverted, but these are normal people who want love and intimacy."
