For years, the Taipei Botanical Garden has banned the mentally ill from its premises, a practice that finally ended on Thursday after a decade-long protest from disability rights groups.
Signs banning the mentally ill have been torn down, but much of the stigma and prejudice of a bygone era remains. Stopping short of an apology, the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, which supervises the botanical garden, only admitted it had overlooked the problem because of “miscommunication.”
Wang Ying-sheng (王瀛生), an institute official, said he has ordered all departments to remove signs that discriminate against the mentally ill.
However, disability rights groups were dissatisfied and used the occasion to further advocate their cause.
“It is difficult to believe that so much discrimination against the mentally ill exists in an advanced country like Taiwan,” said an official with The Alliance for the Mentally Ill, surnamed Chen (陳). “Even until yesterday, there was a sign prohibiting people with mental disorders from entering the Taipei Botanical Garden.”
According to Chen, her organization started lobbying for the sign’s removal 10 years ago. She said the saga would have probably dragged on had the media not latched onto the story and given it coverage.
However, this is just one down, with many more to go, Chen said. She cited a multitude of other examples, from government laws to signs on the streets, that discriminate against the mentally ill.
For instance, she urged the government to amend its own employment regulations so that its agencies cannot fire an employee for having a mental illness. Currently, the Civil Service Employment Act (公務人員任用法) allows this practice.
“You can fire people because they have low capabilities, but how is mental illness different from [firing someone with] high blood pressure or diabetes?” Chen asked.
She urged officials to change all laws and regulations that violate the human rights of the mentally ill.
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