37,000 mentally ill untreated

BANDUNG: An estimated 37,000 mentally insane people are homeless and left wandering about in streets across towns in West Java due to a lack of proper treatment facilities, the Director of Bandung mental hospital Dengara Pane said on Friday.

"The condition has been going on for four year now as the Mental Health Institution (BPKJM), which used to take care of the insane, was dissolved in 1996 due to budget problems," he said.

It is estimated that one to three people out of every 1,000 in West Java are mentally ill, he said. West Java is home to 42 million people.

So far only 10 percent of some 42,000 mentally ill receive proper treatment in hospitals in Bandung, Cimahi and Bogor, he said.

"Treatment for a mentally ill person can cost between Rp 1.2 million and Rp 1.5 million per month, excluding additional therapy," he added. (25/edt)