Mental patients face food crisis

Mental patients face food crisis

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): The administration's limited budget, soaring
prices of essential goods, an absence of donors and the rising
number of patients have turned the city's three centers for
mentally ill people into virtual concentration camps.

Overstretched staff can do little beyond helping to keep the
centers open and their patients, most of whom have become
emaciated, pale and weak, alive.

Due to the unavoidable problems, the institutions -- Panti
Sosial Bina Laras Harapan Sentosa 01, 02 and 03 -- have to use
the minimal funds allocated by the city administration for the
patients' food to also cover other spending, including
maintenance, sanitation and patient health care.

The same funds are also used to cover the burial expenses of
the patients, such as the purchase of the cloth for wrapping the
remains and to transport the corpses to the cemetery.

As a result, the patients now have to share daily essentials
such as bath soap and toothpaste.

The rice allowance for breakfast, lunch and dinner has been
cut by almost half, as has the tempeh and tofu rations. Fish,
eggs and vegetables were removed from the menu months ago.

In an interview with The Jakarta Post last week, the head of
the Jakarta Social Services Agency, Emon Setia Sumantri, said the
city administration's food budget was down to below Rp 2,000 (14
U.S. cents) per patient per day.

Frustrated about the inadequate financial support for the
centers, Emon said: "If the city's poor financial situation
continues, we'll have no choice but to ask the centers'
management to provide meals for the inmates only twice a day,
instead of three."

The problem for the managers is that the meal allowance for
the patients is fixed, meaning that the city won't provide any
more money, even if a center becomes overcrowded.

In such conditions, the centers' managers are having to be
creative to find ways to extend the lives of the patients, most
of whom are without families.

At Harapan Sentosa O3 in Jelambar, West Jakarta, for example,
the management has to work hard to provide enough food on a daily
budget of Rp 200,000 for 192 patients, or less than Rp 350 per
person per meal.

In comparison, the average price of a basic meal sold by
street vendors outside the center's gates is Rp 2,000.

According to the center's head, Soleh Badaruddin, the budget
is allocated by the administration on the basis of 100 inmates,
the "official" capacity of the institution.

What was worse, he said, was the soaring prices of foodstuffs
and other essential goods. Many centers' operators were now
worried about the health and future of their patients.

The three centers, which have a total capacity of 450
patients, are now home to at least 733 insane people.

Harapan Sentosa 01 in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, is 31 people
over its capacity of 250 and Harapan Sentosa 02 in Cipayung, East
Jakarta, has 60 patients more than its capacity of 200.

The three centers are the only institutions for mentally ill
people funded by the administration.

Poor menu

Regarding the food, Soleh said that months ago the inmates
also received fish and eggs.

"But the most important thing is that we'll keep on trying our
best to prevent them from starving," Soleh said.

In the past, he said, individuals, parties and agencies gave
help both financially and in kind.

The Jakarta Funeral Agency, for instance, provided all the
funeral needs, including the unbleached cotton to wrap the
corpses.

"Such help does not exist anymore," Soleh said.

When an inmate died last month, the management had to take Rp
100,000 from its limited budget for the funeral, he added.

"The amount means so much for us as it's half our daily
budget," Soleh said.

"So, we are now hoping not only for food donations but also
unbleached cotton for the bodies of our dead patients," he said.

During visits to the centers last week, the Post witnessed
groups of pale and weak patients sitting or squatting around the
complex.

Those categorized as "wild" were placed in "cells".

As in many centers for the mentally ill, some of the patients
at Harapan Sentosa 02 had their arms and feet tied.

But the problems did not stop the workers at the centers from
praying, asking God's help for the disabled and society's
outcasts.

"We still trust in God that donations will pour in the
future," Soleh said.