First Place
Damon Winter
New York Times
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"Mental Health System in Ruins"
Before the January 12th earthquake there were only 15 psychiatrists in all of Haiti. Now the Mars and Kline Psychiatric Center, the only hospital to treat acute mental illness, is in shambles. Appalled by the conditions at the center, foreign psychiatrists here have vowed to help the Haitian government create a mental health care system that is more than just an underfinanced institution in the capital city. For those with a history of mental illness, the earthquake has been especially destabilizing. Many lost homes, caretakers and medication supplies, and many of the institutionalized were released to the public. ***
Arnold Milhomme lays on the sidewalk outside the Mars and Kline Psychiatric Center. Milhomme was badly injured and blinded in a car accident in 2004 and has been homeless, in and out of treatment ever since. He was back in the hospital late last year after another accident but was discharged again before the earthquake.
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