7m people in W. Java suffer depression

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Around 27 percent of 37 million people in West Java suffer light to severe depression with some three million of them psychotic due to complex social problems in the crisis-riddled country, doctors have said.

The social problems include an increase in unemployment, poverty and the use of illegal drugs.

Dengara Pane, who heads the Bandung Central Psychiatric Hospital, said on Sunday that out of the province's population of 37 million people, more than seven million suffered from mild depression.

And, at least one to three of every 1,000 people in the country's most populated province experienced severe depression or suffered from a psychosis, he added.

Citing the findings of a study in 2001, he said the figure was similar to the outcome of a survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), which said between one and three of 1,000 people in the globe were mentally ill.

Dengara said people with mild depression usually had sleeping difficulties or easily become anxious, while those with severe depression experience severe stress or psychosis.

"Only those with severe depression receive medical attention from us," Dengara said earlier on Friday during a hearing with the West Java Legislative Council Commission E overseeing social affairs, people's welfare, education and health.

He admitted that around 50 percent of those who were treated or hospitalized in local dispensaries for mental illness were from the lower income bracket.

As the patients could not afford to cover their medical costs, he said his hospital situated on Jl. Martadinata and another hospital on Jl. Cisarua had to bear the expenses, resulting in debts of more than Rp 420 million from banks.

Apart from that, the increasing number of sufferers seeking medical treatment and care was also blamed for the increasing debts.

Dengara said many of the patients undergoing medical treatment at the hospitals were children and adults who have still had a future ahead of them.

Responding to the problem, councillor Yudi Widia Adia of Commission E admitted that the provincial legislature had not paid much attention to the management of the hospitals for the mentally ill as they received operational funds from the central government.

Dengara said his hospital alone received around Rp 400 million per month earmarked by the central government from its general allocation funds.

"But following his report (on the increasing number of patients), we have decided to allocate a special fund for the hospitals," Yudi said.

"We even need to set up a program to reduce the number of mentally ill people in West Java because it is related to the productivity of people here," he added.

She promised to propose an allocation of funds from the 2004 provincial budget for the two hospitals to help pay their debts.

During Friday's meeting, councillors expressed concern over the low wages of hospital workers. They are mostly paid Rp 250,000 per month, much lower than the minimum wage of Rp 550,000 per month as stipulated by the West Java government.