![]() ![]() Over time, his muscles atrophied from the lack of movement.ĭespite the odds, once he got access to mental health and other services, Sodikin rebuilt his life. Within this small radius of his life, lit by a solitary lightbulb, Sodikin slept, went to the bathroom, and ate food that his mother would pass to him on plate through a window no larger than the palm of his hand. Without government services, his family felt they had no choice but to lock him up. For more than eight years, Sodikin was locked in a tiny, thatched shed-just two meters wide-outside his family home in West Java, Indonesia. Sodikin, a 34-year-old man with a psychosocial disability, is one of many whose life has been upended by the pandemic. In many countries, Covid-19 has disrupted basic services, leading to people being shackled for the very first time or returning to life in chains after having been released. While Covid-19 has exposed the importance of psychological wellbeing and the need for connection and support within our communities, it has exacerbated the risk to people with psychosocial disabilities who are often shackled in homes or overcrowded institutions without proper access to food, running water, soap and sanitation, or basic health care. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children-some as young as young as 10-have been shackled at least once in their lives in over 60 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. This inhumane practice-called “ shackling”-occurs because of widespread stigma surrounding mental health, and a lack of access to adequate support services, both for those with psychosocial disabilities and for their families. Why? Simply because they have a psychosocial disability (mental health condition). Many are locked in sheds, cages, or tethered to trees and are forced to eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate in the same tiny area, sometimes for years at a time. Long before the Covid-19 pandemic grounded much of the world, lockdown, confinement, violence, and isolation was the daily reality for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities around the world. ![]()
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