Unfortunately, there is a mentality in Romania that psychiatric disorders are shameful illnesses or manifestations of people who want to delude themselves or simply lack a certain “strength of character”. Most of the time, patients with mental disorders are expected to recover on their own, without specialist help. For this reason, while in other pathologies such as oncological or cardiovascular diseases we often see an unjustified referral to the specialist doctor, there is a tendency for psychiatric patients to avoid specialist consultation.

Even more so, when it comes to an older family member or one who has developed an early pathology, relatives tend to put off consulting a psychiatric doctor and, even more so, admitting the patient to an institution. The public image of psychiatric hospitals, which are often seen by the Romanian public as a kind of house of horrors, a place where if you enter you have only minimal chances of being cured or, worse, of aggravating your mental condition, is also to blame for this state of affairs.

The Idris private psychiatric centre for the care of the chronically ill was set up precisely to combat these misconceptions, to give both patients and carers a chance at a better life. Psychiatric pathologies are no more shameful than any other, and the fact that at some point a person develops them says nothing about his or her level of intelligence, the life he or she has led, the way he or she is cared for, just as myopia, for example, sets in independently of the conduct of patients in ophthalmology clinics.

To those who hesitate to consult us or think that if they admit a loved one to our clinic, we tell them only a few things:

• our centre offers diagnosis and care at the highest European level and is a place of permanent concern for the quality of life of our patients, from medication and hygiene to recovery and comfort;
• there can be no sense of guilt or abandonment when you admit a loved one, because in the vast majority of cases they will be better and more competently cared for than at home;
• admission should not be seen as a lack of care for the patient, but on the contrary, because the professionalism of our staff, their experience and long years of study allow us to take a scientific approach, geared towards improving the patient’s state of health or, in the worst case, towards preserving the present situation;
• we can devote ourselves to permanent care, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which is often impossible in a family home where the patient lives with others.

Another aspect you should not lose sight of is that you can end your relationship with our centre whenever you want, without having to explain anything to us. And it is not by chance that we have left it to the end that you can look upon admission to our centre as a first step towards healing your loved ones. Because, yes, admission to a psychiatric centre is not the beginning of the end, but an open door to healing, to a quality life.