Human Rights Watch has called for an end to the brutal practices against the mentally ill, such as being shackled or confined to confined spaces for weeks, months, and even years, and for governments to take care of the mentally ill.

She said that shackling people with mental health conditions is a "widespread barbaric practice, and an open secret in many societies."

"People could spend years chained to trees, or locked in a cage or sheep pens because families are struggling to cope and governments do not provide adequate mental health services," she added.

The report, "Living in Shackles ... Shackling of Psychosocial Disabilities in the World", talks about the forced restriction of people with psychological conditions often by their families in their homes, or in overcrowded and unsanitary institutions, due to stigma and lack of mental health services.

According to the report, many are forced to eat, sleep, urinate and defecate in the same small space.

In institutions run by the state or private institutions, and traditional or religious treatment centers, they are often starved and forced to take medicines or herbal mixtures, and to submit to physical and sexual violence.

The report includes field research and testimonies from Palestine, Yemen, the unilaterally declared state of Somaliland and Afghanistan, in addition to Indonesia, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, China, Ghana, Cambodia, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, Mozambique and Nigeria.

Human Rights Watch, together with mental health advocates who have gone through practical experiences, and human rights and anti-torture organizations around the world, launched a global campaign under the title # Break the Restrictions to end the shackling of people with mental health conditions, before the launch of the World Mental Health Day program in The tenth of this month.

According to the organization, it is estimated that 792 million people in the world (1 in 10 people, including 1 in 5 children), have mental health conditions.

Yet governments spend less than 2% of their health budgets on mental health.

The report also revealed that more than two-thirds of countries do not compensate people for mental health services in national health insurance systems.

Even when mental health services are free or subsidized, the cost of distance and transportation is a major constraint.