Mental disorders’ treatment in Indonesia uses a hospital-based institution approach. Unfortunately, this approach is rather inadequate and incapable of providing the much needed mental health service to the population. As a result of this functional failure of this mental health model, many untreated mentally ill individuals are abandoned, permanently restrained, chained, or placed in cages by their families (pasung). Recently, the Indonesian government acknowledged the severity of the problem and is currently setting up plans and preparing to allocate funds to address the issue. Unfortunately in Bali, this program is still not a priority.
For those reasons, ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is a federation of one national and ten regional public broadcasting stations that reach over 72 million people in about 34 million German households trying to help the Balinese. In a cooperative effort, these stations produce the content for the national ‘First German Television’ channel, eight regional TV channels, and over 50 national and regional radio channels, including radio programs in 12 different languages for foreigners. Norbert Lubbers, ARD Singapore contributor flew to Bali to meet Professor Luh Ketut Suryani and her team to uncover the truth.
“I try to explain to them that we are really trying to help the patient and the family. They chain him so not because they enjoy it. They do it because they are afraid, afraid that he is violent, fear that she is doing something to someone”, said Professor Luh Ketut Suryani during her visit to one of the patient whom the family still reluctant to release. The assessment of mental health and the treatment of mental illness have been neglected in many of the Bali region for a very long time. Reaching an appropriate level of care for the mentally ill will require much effort and partnerships for which Professor Suryani’s works has laid a foundation can thus help the enhancement of the health of the Balinese people. ” We are planning to help the Balinese by bringing this awareness to a more broader audience and hoping to generate more funding for the institute”, said Norbert with tears after he saw the reality in the island of paradise, Bali.