Human Rights Commission Recommends Correction for Group Homes Enforcing Forced Hospitalization and Medication of Disabled Children

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) has recommended corrective measures against group homes for children with disabilities and psychiatric hospitals that forcibly hospitalized disabled children and excessively administered medication.

On the 23rd, the NHRCK announced that it recommended the Minister of Health and Welfare to conduct a full investigation into the psychiatric medication usage of children residing in group homes and to improve related laws and systems to prevent children with severe developmental disabilities from being hospitalized in psychiatric institutions without proper procedures. Additionally, the NHRCK recommended administrative action to the heads of local governments overseeing the group homes where the complaints were filed and ordered the heads of public health centers responsible for the psychiatric hospitals to supervise the discharge of forcibly hospitalized patients or change their hospitalization status.

Earlier, in May, the NHRCK received a complaint from the Northern Gyeonggi Disability Rights Advocacy Agency stating that disabled children living in a group home in Gyeonggi Province were forcibly hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital and were being neglected there. According to the NHRCK’s ex officio investigation, the director of the group home forcibly hospitalized two children under the age of 10 with severe disabilities, for whom he was the legal guardian, in a psychiatric hospital. He also threatened other children who did not obey or ran around by saying, "If you keep doing that, you will also go to the hospital," and administered ADHD medication, calling it "medicine to make you obedient" and "medicine to make you smart."

During the investigation, the director partially admitted to these facts but claimed that there was no malicious intent and that the measures were taken to raise awareness because the children were too disobedient. The psychiatric hospital that received the children from the group home prescribed doses exceeding adult levels and administered central nervous system drugs for depressive disorders whose safety and efficacy in children were not confirmed, according to the NHRCK investigation.

The NHRCK pointed out that the anemic levels of the affected children were significantly lower than normal, and they exhibited side effects of medication such as being dazed all day or drooling. Furthermore, upon investigating the hospitalization records of this psychiatric hospital, the NHRCK found that among 66 patients classified as 'voluntary or consented admission,' 12 were unaware of their admission type, and 15 who could not communicate were processed as voluntary admissions. The NHRCK judged that the actions of the group home director and the psychiatric hospital director, who processed voluntary admissions for minors with severe developmental disabilities lacking decision-making capacity, constitute emotional child abuse infringing on constitutional bodily freedom.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.