Category: Mental Health Project

As the budget cut 90% by the Bali’s governor for the previous project of mental health due to unclear reason, Professor Suryani as the leading psychiatrist the conduct the project for 378 patients in Karangasem regency had to call for Help at any oppurtunities. This time is infront of Rotary Bali Taman, which their motto is  “Cares about poverty, hunger, health, education and environment”. The meeting was held at Ayodya restaurant. About 20 members were came to that meeting and heard the reality in Bali.

“I felt so sad to find out the reality in this most glamour island in Indonesia, we still hide the people that need treatment and left them untreated”, said Helena K. Keith as the new president of the Rotary Bali Taman. The Rotary Club of Bali Taman has about 34 members. The club tries to maintain equilibrium between genders as well as Indonesians and expatriates.

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After being broadcast by foreign television (e.g SBS Australia, Arte +7 French/Germany) the mental health situation in Bali, attention from national television finally came aside. It’s Trans 7 as the pioneer to documented the work of samaritan team from Suryani Institute for Mental Health. “I believed God sent your team to Bali to help us”, said Professor Suryani during her interview at her lovely home in Denpasar (11/5). The crew was shocked and almost unbelieved  that mentally ill Balinese held like animals in chains, cages and even medieval stocks – in this day and age.

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Established in May 2005, the Suryani Institute for Mental Health (SIMH) has just celebrated their fifth anniversary. Responsible for maintaining Balinese culture that is based on Hinduism and guide the Balinese people to reach unity and happiness. They play an active role in understanding life in the Balinese community in a holistic way to create a new generation for Bali that is intelligent, independent, creative, and healthy in a physical, mental, social and spiritual sense.

The SIMH constitutes a real case study in the mental health issues that government don’t want to care. Frequently serving as the pioneer of mental health prevention and community works. “We generally help people who are not being helped by anyone. We want to remind the families, society and the government that these people are not useless”, said Professor Suryani as the Founder and Director of the institute during her mission of mercy helping the mentally ill people.

Continue reading “Suryani Institute for Mental Health Celebrates Their Fifth Anniversary”

A handsome man smiling out from his wedding pictures, it is easy to see how Komang was able to keep his history of mental health problems a secret from his new wife for so long.
But the shock of seeing the 34-year-old’s psychiatrist as a guest of honour at their marriage ceremony in picturesque north-east Bali must have paled into insignificance for his bride when paired with the revelation that her husband-to-be had been living locked in a cage with his brother for the past eight years.
The Indonesian farmer and his brother, Gedenut, 38, had been shackled 24 hours a day by their own family, trapped in a cage in the jungle a short distance from their remote home. The siblings’ father built the wooden bars for them himself after villagers complained they could not cope with the pair’s undiagnosed schizophrenia.
Unable to control the siblings from running riot when unwell, the community decided to keep them caged. Trapped in an enclosure so small they were barely able to turn around, visitors brought them food and water and washed them – but no-one could offer them treatment, much less a cure.
“The neighbours asked the family to look after them because they were making a disturbance,” explained Professor Luh Ketut Suryani, the Balinese psychiatrist whose team discovered and rescued the pair.
“These families are poor – they don’t have enough money to go to the doctor. So they got the idea to restrict the patients,” she said.
“If you have a mental health disorder in Bali don’t hope that someone will help you. “They will leave you the way you are and if you die it is even better for them than seeing you still alive. That is what’s happening to these people.”

Continue reading “Imprisoned in Paradise”