The Jakarta Globe, Nivell Rayda, 22 December 2008
Psychiatric hospitals in Jakarta have seen a sharp rise in the number of people seeking treatment for hysteria and depression following the onset of the global economic crisis and the mass layoffs that have followed.
At least one hospital was inundated with more than 100 new patients and was forced to turn people away, and there are fears that given further projected layoffs in the coming months, the number of people seeking treatment could skyrocket.
Klender Islamic Mental Hospital, a private facility in East Jakarta, has also seen a spike in the number of people wanting help.
“The number of people seeking medical treatment has grown substantially,” Supriharyanto, the hospital’s operations manager, said on Sunday. “In a single day, around 20 patients checked in, though not all were hospitalized.”
He said that the patients showed symptoms of hysteria, depression, melancholia and paranoia.
“There was a woman who claimed that her husband had threatened her with a knife, believing that she was having an affair with an imaginary man,” Supriharyanto said.
“We then rushed to her house and we were fortunate enough to intervene as he was about to commit suicide.”
He said that doctors later discovered that the man’s condition had gone untreated for months out of shame.
“This caused his condition to deteriorate,” Supriharyanto said. “If the family really wanted to help him, then they should have immediately sought professional help.”
He said that the man, whose condition has since improved, was discharged from the hospital and is now being treated at home.
Around 100 people have tried to check in to state-run Soeharto Heerdjan Mental Hospital in Grogol, West Jakarta, Aminullah, the facility’s director, said on Sunday.
“We were forced to reject patients because we are already overcrowded,” he said.
“Where are we going to put them? The best we can do is give them an antidepressant, send them home and monitor their condition from time to time, except for those we feel are suicidal or manic depressive.”
The recent influx of patients might just be the tip of the iceberg. The Indonesian Psychiatric Association reported earlier this year that less than 1 percent of all people dealing with mental illness in the country seek professional attention because of the stigma involved.
The Indonesian Institute of Sciences reported last week that at least 600,000 people have lost their jobs this year and warned there could be an even greater number of layoffs in 2009.
Last week, a 22-year-old woman in Malang, East Java Province, tried to kill herself by jumping into a 12-meter-deep well after she was dismissed from her job as a shop attendant.
She reportedly exhibited signs of melancholia before attempting to commit suicide.
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