Vila Vicentina

Today, I visited an asylum called Vila Vicentina. This was founded in 1945 by a nun called Sister Maria Antonia. As you pass the security doors, there is a sign saying in desperate need of food. The asylum houses 85 service users, with 39 female residents and 46 male service users. All of the service users have some degree of mental and physical health problems. The youngest resident here is 32 years old and the oldest is 92.

To get a place here, the family need to apply as they are themselves no longer able to look after them anymore. If the potential service user has worked in the past, then their pension will pay for their care, if they haven't, or have no pension, then their payment for their care is reliant on private donations, and the asylum will make an appeal to private donators for their care. The board of directors will decide whether a person is eligible to be cared for here, after looking through doctors notes and the families request form.

The asylum is very shabby, and the rooms are in need of refurbishment, but due to lack of finances, this has not been possible. The residents have limited entertainment, with very sparse T.V facilities or other things to do. The majority of the patients sit staring into space with virtually no stimulation. There is a chapel here and the grave of the founder, and each week they have a ceremony for her. Two of the residents help out around the gardens, which helps not only the service users in terms of their stimulation, but also the staff. There is a place where one of the residents was making art pieces which he sold this to make money for himself.

They change the patients nappies two patients at a time, and if they can stand, then this is done with them holding onto a metal bar.

There is limited staffing here, with only one member of staff , a nurse on at the night shift. If there is an emergency, then she needs to ask for the assistance of one of the more able residents to help. I said that this was dangerous, but the response was that the funding simply wasn't there.

The asylum has a door which joins to the hospital, but there is no ramp, which means the nurse has to lift the wheel chair up quite a high step to get the resident up.

One of the most upsetting parts was that only five of the residents have visitors and are able to get out. The rest of the residents have no one outside of the asylum who visit them. There are times when places like this make you realise how difficult life can be for some people.