Category: News

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Australian Volunteers International take action for mental illness in Bali

Australian Volunteers International (AVI) is committed to a vision of a peaceful and just world; a sustainable world, where all people have access to the resources they need, the opportunity to achieve their potential, the right to make decisions about the kind of development they want and to participate in the future of their own communities.  As the program is proudly support by AusAID for Australian volunteers who work in a development capacity overseas, the mentally ill people in Bali has bring their attention to take action.

“We got information from our trusted source that a high number of untreated mental health patient has made Professor Suryani to go to communities and provide direct services to the patients”, said John Hunt as Indonesia Country Manager for AVI during his quick visit to Professor Luh Ketut Suryani headquater in Denpasar.

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New Jersey Psychiatrist bring medicine to Paradise

The first line psychiatric treatment for schizophrenia is antipsychotic medication.  These can reduce the positive symptoms of psychosis. Most antipsychotics take around 7–14 days to have their main effect. Currently available antipsychotics fail, however, to significantly ameliorate the negative symptoms, and the improvements on cognition may be attributed to the practice effect. On regards of the patient’s condition in Bali, most of them been chronically ill for many years with no medication. They left untreated by their families, communities and their own government. Only few of them can still survive with the increase cost of medication, while most of them were hide by the society.

“I felt moved to help the mental health condition in Bali after saw it in the internet”, said Dr Ashok Patel as one of 2500 psychiatrists in New Jersey, USA during his  special visit with the family to see Professor Luh Ketut Suryani. The medicines was collected from sample provided by pharmaceutical company and all of them are the newest drugs on the market. The medicines will be use in combination with individual therapy and family-based intervention.

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Community of Western Australia visit Mental Health Project

The mentally ill in Bali continue to be ignored, mistreated and abused. It has been estimated that over 7,000 people in Bali suffer from serious chronic mental illnesses, the majority of whom will never receive any treatment. It is likely that the true numbers will be much higher. For this reason, the community of Western Australia sent their volunteer to see the reality behind the story. There were four volunteer sent to Bali namely, Karen Urguhart, Julie Quicke, Peter Cornish, and Jeannig Cornish. “Seeing is beleiving”, said Peter as the oldest member of the volunteer.

“I felt like creating a new tourist destination in Bali’, said Professor Luh Ketut Suryani dispite her sadness seeing the reality of her government doesn’t want to continue support her work in community. Her approach to mental health, which is community-based using a biopsychosociocultural (i.e. holistic) model is applied to this devastating condition. This means that mental health services are provided in normal community settings close to the population served. The symbols, values, and traditions of the community become grist for the mill in working with patients and families.


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Suryani asked Taxi Demonstration to be calm

Hundreds of local taxi drivers staged a demonstration in June, demanding the closure of the Bluebird taxi company in Bali for allegedly operating on the island without a permit. The tension between Blue Bird and other taxi operators in Bali started early this year when the provincial administration’s Transportation, Information and Communication Department sent a letter to the company questioning the legal standing of the Bali taxi operation. The letter, dated Feb. 1, 2010, questioned the use of the Blue Bird brand on taxis operating under permits issued to Praja Bali.

For that reason, Professor Luh Ketut Suryani tried to be the mediator between taxi drivers with Bali’s governor. “I try to find the balinese way in handle a problem, not by demonstration or any destructive way, but can we sit together and talk in a peacefull way”, said Suryani during the gathering with taxi driver in Governor Office temple.

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