By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL, Nov 7 (Reuters) - A Turkish human rights group stepped up calls on Friday for Turkey to improve mental health care after Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, drew official criticism by highlighting the issue in a television documentary.

Officials have accused Ferguson of smearing Turkey's image to harm its bid for EU membership in a programme broadcast a day after Brussels published a report on its accession process. Turkish media have given extensive coverage to the controversy.

However, her criticism of care centres portrayed in the documentary was echoed by Turkey's Human Rights in Mental Health Initiative (RUSIHAK), which has spent the last year and a half producing a report on Turkish mental health care.

"The real problem is that these children are kept as if they are in a store house, far from society... Unfortunately, conditions were inadequate in all the centres that we visited," lawyer Nalan Erkim told a news conference held by RUSIHAK.

The European Union has repeatedly highlighted concerns over human rights in Turkey as a major obstacle to its bid for EU membership.

The group's report highlighted poor hygienic conditions, inadequate medical care and a lack of rehabilitation in a study on six mental health hospitals and six care centres -- including one visited by Ferguson -- across Turkey.

It said treatment was mainly based on medication, while existing physiotherapy facilities remained unused. Immobilisation by strapping patients down applied in nearly all institutions, in extreme cases lasting for six days.

UNDERCOVER REPORT

RUSIHAK recommended the implementation of community-based services, increasing the number of staff and supplementing medication with other treatments such as psychotherapy and psychosocial rehabilitation.

RUSIHAK board member Fatma Zengin Dagidir said the Ferguson documentary had succeeded in bringing the issue to the fore after a previous lack of media and official interest.

"The Sarah Ferguson documentary had an explosive effect when it was broadcast. We don't like sensationalism but now I have started to believe in the importance of such things," she told Reuters.

Ferguson, ex-wife of Queen Elizabeth's second son Andrew, went under cover with ITN reporters to report on conditions in state-run insitutions in Ankara and Istanbul. Turkish officials have objected to the undercover nature of the documentary.

A reporter who accompanied Ferguson on the trip said children were found tied to their beds or left in filthy cots, many showing signs of distress. (Editing by Ralph Boulton)

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