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ifty mentally-ill patients who have recovered at the state-run Prof. Dr. VL Ratumbuysang Hospital in Manado, North Sulawesi, have been rejected by their families and returned to the hospital.

“We usually refer to them [those who are turned back by their families] as our ‘stock’,” said the hospital’s medical service division head, Jefri Dengah.

Patients suffering from mental disturbances who have been declared healthy can be returned to their families. However, many families are refusing to accept them, fearing that the mental illness could reoccur at any time.

In many cases, the continuing stigma attached to mental illness means that former mental patients are also ostracized by their surrounding communities. In some cases, patients are homeless, having been picked up from living on the streets, and their families unknown or uncontactable.

Quoting articles 80, 81 and 82 of Law No. 18/2014 on mental illness, Jefri said that such patients were the responsibility of local authorities, adding, though, that his hospital for one had made it a policy to continue accommodating them.

“In some other regions they are accommodated in shelters managed by the respective social affairs agencies, but we don’t have such facilities yet here,” Jefri said.

The 2013 Basic Health Study (Riskesdas) showed that 6 percent of the country’s population aged 15 and above, numbering more than 14 million people, were susceptible to depression or general mental illness, while about 400,000 had serious mental problems including schizophrenia.

About 57,000 had been or were still being shackled, a practice known as pasung; most of these cases occurred in rural areas.

Jefri said that based on the standard procedure for handling mentally ill patients covered by national health insurance (JKN), patients were treated for 40 days. In the case that they are rejected by their families, the hospital takes over the treatment indefinitely.

Jefri’s hospital now accommodates 157 mentally ill inpatients and treats an average of five mentally ill outpatients a day; most of the latter are not new patients, and come to the hospital to obtain medication.

Separately, North Sulawesi Social Affairs Agency head Grace Lourino Punuh said that the agency was indeed obliged to prepare a building as a social rehabilitation facility. Unfortunately, so far, no such facility is available in the region.

“Hopefully the budget proposed for the facility will soon be followed up, especially because the provincial legislative council has continued to push for the establishment of the facility,” Grace said.