Changing conversation on mental health is a slow process. Physicians and general public are finally beginning to referto mental illness as a chronic disease that mustbe managed throughout life. Nong Gaht comes from similar village as one of our Freedom Story staff members.
Village elders had a meeting and decided he needed to leave.
Actually the people there were also ill equipped to understand or problems, and with his ‘drug addicted’ stepfather. His mother ok him to a government home and lived with him there, with will be better controlled. Causes were not understood, behavior was. Unacceptable to local community.
Amidst to primary concerns is that Thai society harbors serious prejudice against and intolerance for those who have mental health problems.
Most Thai people lack valid knowledge and understanding about mental problems, as Chutima explains.
Now this includes relatives and family members as they fear society’s disgust and aversion or that people might be paranoid that topatient, who is their relative, will harm others. So this situation highlights a complex problem. They perceive people seeking counseling or treatment as insane. Problems go undiagnosed and untreated until they get so bad someone gets hurt. Thus, are ashamed to seek counseling or treatment. Then again, whenever getting it’s unnecessary for them to seek counseling or treatment.
Patients or relatives will only consider seeking counseling and treatment when symptoms have worsened or affected patients physically and socially, as an example.
People from middle to upper classes are those who earn better salaries and receive better education. Another question isSo question is this. What kind of effect does even exposure of those heavy medications given to a young child have on his ‘longterm’ ‘well being’?
Would he have remained in a catatonic state, shunned from all society?
We at The Freedom Story have seen all these problems play out in case of our student, Nong Gaht.
Where should they put him, if people around him can no longer afford tomedications. From systematic exclusion in being ostracized from his local community, to difficulty finding help, and lack of skill and understanding from even trained professionals, Nong Gaht is treated the way that could only be seen as tragic and abusive. How might his story play out, without proper care and now this process might include civil commitment at amidst to four state psychiatric hospitals. Remember, don’t be ashamed or embarrassed, Therefore in case you are someone you know needs help. That’s interesting right? Most of to main barriers to seeking help, are misconceptions and stereotypes we have of mental illness and mental healthcare. Quite a few mental disorders and illnesses can be successfully treated without an individual having to go to a hospital.
Private providers in your area may also provide treatment alternatives.
Other individuals may need hospitalization.
Contact your local community mental health center, and staff will explain treatment possibilities there. So an assessment will occur and a determination might be made if mental health services must be helpful, like medication, individual as well as family therapy, psychosocial rehabilitation services, residential services, and family or consumer education. Staff may guide you or person you are concerned about through process for hospitalization, So if necessary. Certainly, cornerstone Counseling Foundation and The Well Member Care Center. However, regarding mental health counseling centers, there’re only 19 service providers managed by Department of Mental Health whereas So there’re 77 provinces in Thailand and population is higher than 70 million. Chutima is aware of. Just think for a moment. Look, there’re only two such places in Chiang Mai that Ms. Some regional big cities, similar to Bangkok or Chiang Mai, have mental health counseling centers managed by private sectors. In our experience, people who are impoverished, who are systematically excluded and alienated from society, who lack education and awareness or are in some way controllable are most vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation.
While finding need to deal with when help, improperly conceived and executed, becomes just another type of incarceration, even if Nong Gaht’s end point does not result in sex trafficking.
Surely it’s widely understood that victims of trafficking and abuse must be in need of mental health care services to aid in restitution and rehabilitation.
In this piece, we’d like to share story of one of our students, Nong Gaht, to emphasize role proper mental health care can play in expanding freedom and opportunity and how oppressive lack of it can be. It probably comes without stretch of imagination that social workers in to’anti trafficking’ industry would also need support to handle emotional ll of work they do.
What may not be obvious, however, is that mental health services are also critical to prevention of child slavery and exploitation.
In 2012, Department of Mental Health and Health’s Policies Technology Evaluation Project conducted a survey to evaluate mental health situations in a few provinces.
It was found that there was no improvement or there was only slight progress in condition of 1 5 out patients. It was shocking to note that fewer than 10percentage of participants in following categories sought treatment. I’m sure you heard about this. Did you know that the results revealed other problems. Despite the fact that they sought counseling or treatment. Therefore, subjects of survey included people with depression, chronic depression, hypomania, mania, emotional disorders, drug and alcohol consumption disorders, psychosis, dementia and suicidal risk.
In Thailand, most of us know that there is a severe lack of trained mental health personnel, including counselors, psychotherapists, psychologists, occupational therapists, and social workers.
There’re not popular among university students and only a small number of graduates pursue careers in mental health, while subjects about mental health are offered as part of curriculum at universities.
Report conducted as recently as August 2016 put the general number of personnel working in mental health department at 2801. Furthermore, please contact certified provider directly regarding availability of services. Use search form below and enter your county, intention to find nearest MH Certified Service Providers in your area. This is where it starts getting really interesting, right? Plenty of services for mental health, IDD, alcohol and drug addictions, and Alzheimer’s disease and similar Dementia are available across tostate.
Staff members at The Freedom Story were shocked and horrified to see him reduced to a zombielike state.
He subsequently left their facility and went back to a government home, Meanwhile, our staff had set him up with a non governmental orphanage whose staff are trained to deal with complicated cases like his.
While our staff members try to find an alternative school situation, he is still not preparing to school because of his behavioral problems. Freedom Story staff remain unconvinced that it is p treatment for his case, doctor in Chiang Mai switched his medication and he now is in somewhat better shape. Next steps remain both critical and uncertain. Although, our staff ok him back to doctor to verify diagnosis and prescribed treatment, and doctor admitted Nong Gaht’s case was beyond scope of her expertise.
She had recommended taking him to Chiang Mai for better treatment. His case is further complicated being that he is stateless, and thus has severe restrictions on his ability to travel to Chiang Mai for regular treatment and care. Like all of our other organs, it’s sometimes easy to forget that our brain, is vulnerable to disease. Mental illness is a health condition just like diabetes or asthma is a health condition. One in five people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, and one family in four has a member who is mentally ill and who will require some treatment type. Good mental health is an essential component of good physical health. By the way, a mental illness is a health condition that causes changes in a person’s thinking, mood or behavior.
Mental illnesses are more common than cancer and heart disease combined. Both direct and indirect financial damages resulting from fact that patients do not seek counseling or treatment in early stages are estimated to be as high as tens of thousands of million baht or they can be immeasurable, as in case of loss of life. They will have to pay for transportation and accommodation, I’d say if they look for to receive counseling or treatment from public hospitals located in other wns or provinces. Thailand is a developing country and a number of Thai people who are mentally affected are those from low and middle classes. These people do not have enough money to seek continual mental health counseling. Those who do not live in areas in which government offers counseling centers as a part of Universal Health Care Coverage have to receive services from private hospitals. Then the factor that impacts them most is stress resulting from a bad economy. Anyway, many thanks to Chalermkwan Chutima for her expertise and generous time spent helping to write this article, and to Paweena Nakha for her was changed to protect his and his family’s privacy.