As many as 9,142 people in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) have been treated for mental illness as of September this year amid economic hardship, a hospital said Monday.
NTB Mental Hospital director Elly Rosila Wijaya said 766 patients were being treated at the emergency unit, 7,254 patients had received outpatient treatment and 852 patients had received inpatient treatment for severe mental disorders. “We recorded a rising trend this year compared to last year.”
In 2008, the hospital recorded 863 patients treated at the emergency unit, 9,823 outpatients and 983 inpatients.
Based on available data more than 70 percent of patients were from the low-income bracket and covered under the government-sponsored Jamkesmas health insurance program, suggesting the dominant factor for NTB’s high number of mentally distressed patients was poverty.
“The main factor is very complex. But if we notice from the data that more than 70 percent of the patients are from poor background, we assume that the main factor is economic hardship.”
She cited the huge number of returning migrant workers, mostly women, suffering from mental distress.
Based on a survey conducted by the Health Ministry, recorded by the Central Statistics Agency in 2007, NTB ranked 10th in terms of the number of mental illness sufferers with a prevalence rate of 12.8 percent of its population.
NTB is also ranked fifth among 33 provinces for the highest number of severe mental disorder patients, with a prevalence rate of 1 percent of the number of population.
If the population of NTB is 4.2 million people, added Elly, then the potential of those suffering from severe mental distress in the province could reach 42,000 people. “The problem is where are they now and why have only a small portion of them admitted to the NTB Mental Hospital?”
She said the social stigma surrounding mental illness among local people has led to many cases being undetected by the hospital.
She said people generally still used paranormal services to cure mental illness, and would only go to the hospital if they failed.
Many people suffering from mental illnesses are reportedly being chained or put in the stocks by their families.
Elly said the hospital had revitalized external activities by involving community health clinics and working with the provincial health office since early this year to provide community mental health services.
The mental hospital has mobilized a team made up of doctors, psychiatrists, nurses and pharmacists from the hospital to provide training to medical workers at community health clinics in Mataram city, and West, East and Central Lombok regencies. “They will also be assisted by village cadres to map out mental patients. The community health clinics will treat patients there or if need be refer them immediately to the hospital,” she said.
Elly said mental illness was not fatal but its impact was detrimental because a patient’s productivity definitely drops it was not lost, especially as those who suffer from mental illness are generally in their productive years.
