T

he families of people with mental illnesses in Indonesia frequently take their sick relatives to traditional medical practitioners, an official says.

According to Health Ministry mental health chief Irmansyah, many mentally ill patients had no access to medical treatment.

“We are still facing quite a huge treatment gap,” he said on Friday.

For example, Irmansyah said, 96 percent of patients with psychoses in Indonesia were brought to traditional practitioners for treatment.

Some mentally ill people received no treatment at all or were confined in inhumane conditions, he added.

Throughout the nation, thousands of people with serious mental illnesses are victims of violence, bound or shackled by family members who lack the knowledge or money for their treatment.

The number of mentally ill people shackled by their relatives across the nation may top 18,000 people.

“It’s alarming,” said Irmansyah.

Even in big cities such as Jakarta, the practice of shackling persists.

In Mampang, South Jakarta, for example, Jamil, 15, has been shackled by his family, while in Sunter, North Jakarta, a Koran recitation group has shackled five mental ill people.

In another case, in Tangerang, a 16-year-old mentally retarded boy has been shackled since he was four.

More than 450 million people across the globe suffer from mental health disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism and drug addictions, according to reports. Some disorders affect select groups of people, such as the children or the elderly.

An estimated 25 million people suffer from schizophrenia worldwide, while more than 90 million people have a drug or alcohol addiction. Almost one million people commit suicide every year.

Tun Kurniasih Bastaman, chairwoman of the Indonesian Psychiatric Association (IPA), said that mental disorders could be triggered by psychosocial stressors or daily events that forced people to adapt, such as high workloads.

“People who fail to adapt to particular daily events may suffer from mental disorders showing symptoms of the mildest kind, such as sleep disorders, anxiety or depression. They can be cured once the sources of their stress disappeared,” she said.

Psychological therapy, such as talk therapy or supportive therapy, can help some. Those with severe mental illness, however, may benefit from medication.

According to Health Ministry Data, there were 19 million people over the age of 15 in Indonesia with emotional mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, or about 12 percent of the age group.

Meanwhile, about 1 million people — just under half a percent of total people aged above 15 years — suffered from severe mental illnesses, according to the data.

— JP/Elly Burhaini Faizal