THESE disturbing photographs taken in a Venezuelan hospital lay bare the suffering of vulnerable mentally ill people as the country implodes.

Hospital services across the stricken socialist South American country are going through a widespread crisis amid a shortage of medicine and the low salaries of doctors and nurses who depend on the state.

A view of the emergency room where patients are taken into after admission
This woman has been forgotten by her society which struggles to feed itself
Insects crawl into patients’ beds and scurry through the spaces where nurses rest
These two men are not prisoners but unwell people
A patient reaches out of the window of her room
Hygiene rules clearly no longer apply mainly because cleaners cannot be paid for
A neglected mental health patient lies on a bed
Mental health patients stand behind the bars of their room
A mental health patient at the Caracas Psychiatric Hospital lies on a dirty mattress and excrement surrounds him

Rooms at the 126 year-old Caracas Psychiatric Hospital are filthy. Bunks are not even labelled with the patients’ names.

Cockroaches and other insects can be seen crawling the walls, creeping into patients’ and nurses’ beds.

An absence of maintenance personnel means garbage, human excrement and dead insects build up in rooms, bathrooms and courtyards of the sprawling sanatorium.

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