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.