Over 7000 people in Bali suffer from serious chronic mental illnesses, but are not reported (and naturally not treated). For various reasons, financial, social, political, educational, or simply shame, their families have been reluctant to seek help, while the few who did never received any. Therefore, as a last resort, these families may either abandon their mentally ill relatives in the jungle (hoping they will die or just forever disappear) or keep them under restraints, chained or inside makeshift cages.
“We feel Professor Luh Ketut Suryani’s work in community is indispensable and hugely important, we think it helps to improve the human rights of mentally ill patients, which is urgently needed all over the world”, said Laurent Delhomme as the editor and producer at YemaYa production that produced and distributed numerous films on French and international channels during his visit with Professor Suryani to community.
The irony in all of this is that almost every one of these cases is treatable. Professor Suryani has used her limited personal resources and has already successfully treated (obviously free of charge) 676 of these people, all of whom have recovered and are now living normal lives. However, the Indonesian government still refuses to acknowledge the existence of a problem. “We don’t promise anything but the channel we work is big in French so hopefully there will be a help from out side this beautiful island that willing to erase the problems”, add Laurent by the end of his visit together with cameraman Tony Casabianca.