María Isabel Arrocha's son was admitted last Friday to the Doctor Julio Santiago Obeso Psychosocial Rehabilitation Unit, as his mother had been demanding for months. María Isabel Arrocha requested permanent admission for Saturnino to a specialized center for the mentally ill, since she stated that he had become "very violent" and that the situation was "unsustainable." About to turn 40 years old, he is "diagnosed with borderline intelligence, polytoxicology and mixed personality disorder", and his sexagenarian mother has even staged protests in front of the Cabildo demanding help.
Finally, Saturnino went to that specialized center on Friday at 9 in the morning accompanied by his mother to be admitted, according to María Isabel Arrocha herself told La Voz. This Unit depends on the Cabildo of Lanzarote, but it is the Canary Health Service that has the powers in the admission criteria, as confirmed in December by the previous Minister of Social Welfare, Carmen Rosa Márquez, who stated that she would "insist again with Mental Health" to find a solution for Saturnino.
María Isabel points out that this admission has finally occurred with the intermediation of the Cabildo. "It took me 11 months of struggle, but I achieved it," she says now, after having experienced hard times until last week. "On Monday I couldn't handle him anymore, I was desperate," she recalls. This mother, who even threatened to chain herself to the doors of the Cabildo if she did not receive a response from the Corporation, even had to resort to the Police on occasion.
Since Friday, Saturnino has remained in the center 24 hours a day. "He is very well cared for, it is a center prepared for what he has," celebrates his mother. As she explains, he himself was in favor of being admitted in recent months. "He would say to me: when am I going to be admitted, I am getting worse every day," she says. María Isabel hopes that with his admission, her son will "settle down" and learn to live with his illness. "So that he knows how to govern his house, his clothes, wash, iron, for the day that I am gone. He couldn't be in the conditions he was in, he was like a little child," says his mother, who estimates that Saturnino should stay there for "a year and a half", until he stabilizes.
"My struggle has been rewarded"
María Isabel Arrocha made her demands public last December through a letter sent to the media, in which she explained that she had been asking for months for her son, "diagnosed with borderline intelligence, polytoxicology and mixed personality disorder", to be permanently admitted to a specialized center. She related that Saturnino had returned home after previous occasional admissions and had altered routines, went out and came in at night and became "very violent", to the point that his mother claimed to be "afraid" of him and even had to resort to the help of the Police on several occasions. The situation was "unsustainable". Now, María Isabel Arrocha believes that finally that "struggle that I have had these 11 months has been rewarded".
"I don't hold a grudge against anyone, but I've had a very bad time," emphasizes this mother, who, in fact, assures that she has no "words to thank" "some gentlemen who fought a lot, a lot for me." She alludes, specifically, to the president of the Cabildo and the councilors Luis Arráez and the councilor Lucía Olga Tejera, as well as the previous Minister of Social Welfare, Carmen Rosa Márquez. According to María Isabel, she is "surprised" with the treatment she has received from them, since she points out that Pedro San Ginés has attended to her "personally" on several occasions and also Arráez and Tejera, of whom she says that she has been "like a psychologist", for the "encouragement" that she has given her.
Although hopeful, María Isabel believes that we have to wait "to see" how her son evolves. "He has been sick since he was little, even as a child he heard voices. Yes, he got into the world of drugs, but that wasn't at 8 years old, when he already heard the voices. Those diseases bring vices and bring everything," says this mother. Due to his illness, Saturnino "has relapses, there are times when he is well, but when he has one there has to be a person prepared to take care of him," she adds. Now, she says that she is "calmer", because her son is "cared for" in that Psychosocial Rehabilitation Unit. "What I have gone through I cannot recover," says María Isabel Arrocha, who despite this is satisfied that her struggle has paid off. "When a door closes, you have to keep fighting until it opens".
