Treesye, Indonesia's 'Miss Junkie'

Blontank Poer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is at the height of its antinarcotics campaign. Banners and posters can be seen everywhere across the country with a single message: Stay away from drugs.

Drug abuse has become a serious problem in Indonesia. The latest data from the National Narcotics Agency (BNN, bknn.or.id) shows that at least 2 million Indonesians are involved in it.

Ironically, cases of drug abuse that the police have handled are relatively small. The number increased from 1,833 in 1999 to 3,478 in 2000 and 3,617 in 2001.

What has caused concern is that while in 1999 only 11,026 of the total recorded drug abusers were properly treated, the total decreased to almost half of that in the next two years.

"This is like the tip of an iceberg. It cannot be used as a reference because the actual number must be much greater than the official figure," said therapist Treesye Nugraheni Ratri Astuti.

Treesye may be right, for, as a therapist for drug addicts at Wisma Adiksi, a drug addict rehabilitation clinic, and at Puri Cinere Hospital, she can make an estimate close to the actual number.

Every drug addict, also referred to as a junkie, usually has about three drug abusers within his inner circle, she said.

What bothers Treesye is that the government has never been serious in its campaign to eradicate drug trafficking because law enforcers have often let narcotics bosses off, thus encouraging others to follow suit.

Instead, drug abusers, who are the victims, are often severely punished.

She pointed out that the government was not being responsive enough to victims of drug abuse. Indonesia, for example, has no special hospital or rehabilitation center for drug abusers from the middle-to-lower social classes. In handling drug prevention and recovery, Indonesia is about a decade behind its neighboring countries, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

"Rich people can save members of their families, but not the poor," said Treesye. She said that at least Rp 6 million is required to fully detoxify a drug abuser. Therapy at a recovery center costs at least Rp 3 million per month, she added.

Treesye handles physical and psychological recovery of drug addicts so that they can get along properly with their families and community.

Apart from the victims, their families are important targets for therapy so that they can properly deal with a drug abuser among them.

"In this way, a drug addict will be kept away from drug consumption for a long time. Usually drug addicts can easily slip back into addiction if their families cannot accept them as they are," she said.

Along with some of her colleagues at Wisma Adiksi and Puri Cinere Hospital, Treesye is grooming a number of prospective counselors and clinical staffers from among drug addicts, particularly women.

She said that they found it very hard to get people ready to handle women drug addicts. Extra knowledge and experience were needed because the problems that a women drug addict had to face were usually more complex.

A strong urge to volunteer to help narcotics victims and serve as a therapist made her abandon her teenage glamorous world. In 1973 she was crowned Miss Jakarta and in 1976 Miss Indonesia.

"Since childhood I developed a penchant for listening to people's complaints. When I decided to accompany these people, I left behind my glamorous life and stopped my activities as Miss Indonesia. Their world was quite different to mine," said Treesye, who now raises two daughters alone after her husband died three years ago.

Indonesia, she said, has only a few women counselors. In Greater Jakarta, there are some 50 recovery centers and rehabilitation clinics but only a small number of experts to deal with women victims.

The number of women undergoing rehabilitation is no more than one-fifth of the number of male victims. At Wisma Adiksi, for example, she was only able to persuade 10 women to work as counselors from 50 already treated since the clinic for women opened in 1999.

Women victims of narcotics need special attention as they play a key role in their families, especially if they are married with children.

"Women addicts usually consider themselves useless -- both within their families and their community - so their self-esteem must be restored," she said.

One of her foster children is an ex-addict who is now able to help other victims and is learning the therapeutic community method in Malaysia. Under this method, drug abusers are handled using a multidisciplinary approach, involving physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical staffers/counselors and social workers.

Treesye got acquainted with the world of drug abuse while completing her studies for a degree in psychology at the University of San Diego, California, in 1989. While studying, she also worked as a family counselor at the East Wind Socialization Center for Southeast Asian Refugees, San Diego.

It was at this institution that she handled the impact of cultural problems experienced by Vietnamese refugees. She provided them with skills and empowered them as regards their need to interact with American culture.

After earning her BA degree, Treesye continued her studies for an MA degree (1993) in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling at the same university.

Then, while taking lectures, she worked as a family therapist at Ocean Beach Community Services, California. It was here that she dealt with various problems afflicting teenagers, such as violence against children, rape and incest as well as abuse of alcohol and narcotics by teenagers.

While dealing with "men from the dark world", she studied a lot about psychotropic drugs and other narcotic substances from many countries.