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Health centers gear up to help depressed legislative candidates
Local administrations and health centers have been working to prepare special facilities for legislative candidates who are likely to suffer from stress and mental breakdowns after defeat in the Feb. 14 election.
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A worker carries a ballot box for distribution to polling stations on Feb. 13, 2024, at a distribution center in Jakarta ahead of the 2024 general election on Feb. 14. (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)
Local administrations and health centers have been working to prepare special facilities for legislative candidates who are likely to suffer from stress and mental breakdowns after defeat in the Feb. 14 election.
Despite a lack of reports of candidates facing mental breakdowns during the 2019 election, Central Jakarta is among the regions gearing up to offer mental health services and facilities for post-election depression, said Central Jakarta Health Agency head Risma Sari.
Risma said that candidates would be directed first to seek medical care in nearby community health centers (Puskesmas) and transferred to hospitals if they are required to do so, Antara reported.
Voters cast their ballots in the simultaneous legislative and presidential elections on Wednesday. Several pollsters have begun releasing preliminary, unofficial results from quick counts, but people will only know the official results by March 20 at the latest, after the General Elections Commission (KPU) finishes the official count.
In Cianjur regency in West Java, Sayang General Hospital (RSUD) has prepared two beds for legislative candidates who might need psychiatric services.
“Normally before and after the elections, many [legislative candidates] complained of pain in their chests [...] and heads,” said Sayang RSUD director Irvan Nur Fauzy, as quoted from Kompas.com. “But after being examined, everything was normal. This indicates psychosomatic [symptoms].”
The hospital will also run a public campaign for legislative candidates on how to manage stress before and after the election results come out.
