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People with mental illness still neglected, official admits
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Depression can negatively affect one's quality of life. (Shutterstock/-)
T
he Health Ministry has acknowledged that many people with mental health problems are still neglected and are not offered the necessary treatment by government.
Fidiansjah, the Health Ministry’s director for the prevention and control of mental health and drug problems, said one problem was that the country did not have enough doctors, nurses and psychiatrists.
“The distribution of human resources is only concentrated in the big cities,” he said on Sunday during an event held to commemorate World Mental Health Day.
Financing is also a major problem. At present, the state allocates just 5 percent of the budget for health issues, and out of that, only a small percentage has been put aside for treating people with mental health problems, Fidiansjah said.
Despite the tremendous amount of work that remains to be done to improve mental health treatment in the country, the Health Ministry will attempt to offer better services for people with mental health illnesses through inter-sector collaboration.
This year, the government is in the process of creating a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Social Affairs Ministry, the Home Ministry and the Office of the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister in a bid to solve the issue.
“For instance, the Health Ministry would take a role in providing treatment and medication. Then, the Social Affairs Ministry would help those suffering from mental health problems integrate back into the community,” he said. (win/bbn)
