Bored Panda works better on our iPhone app
Continue in app Continue in browser

BoredPanda Add post form topAdd Post Search
Tooltip close

The Bored Panda iOS app is live! Fight boredom with iPhones and iPads here.

Shocking Photos Of Indonesia’s Mentally Ill Patients Show Their Disturbing Living Conditions
User submission
20K
535.5K

Shocking Photos Of Indonesia’s Mentally Ill Patients Show Their Disturbing Living Conditions

ADVERTISEMENT

Pasung, the Indonesian term for restraints or restrained, was banned in 1977, but is still widely used in a country where mental illness is a taboo issue. Concerned by the plight of these people, NY based photographer Andrea Star Reese spent 2011-2012 investigating the conditions of Indonesia’s mental health facilities for her 2013 documentary “Disorder.”

“Walking in the door has been easy, even when conditions were horrifying, and they often are,” Reese revealed to Feature Shoot. “Leaving is what is difficult and disturbing. I am continuing this documentation because conditions remain critical, progress is slow, and Indonesia’s government does pay attention to the International press. International and National NGO’s are using my photographs and reports to further their efforts. I cannot leave this story”

More info: andreastarreese.com | Facebook | Instagram (h/t: demilked, featureshoot, time)

“Agus sings in his cage. Keepers won’t let him out fearing he would run away, so this cage has become his permanent home”

“Evi’s hallucinations started when she was fifteen. Her parents paid for the wooden bed and Islamic approach to her treatment”

“Galuh Foundation in Jakarta, Indonesia is licensed by the government. No one is turned away, but government provides only two months of food, there is no actual housing, only a cage-like pavilion, where men and women are separated by a wire wall”

ADVERTISEMENT

“Muhammad (left) is performing a mass healing. For the whole day and night the patients will drink herbal drinks, pray, vomit and eventually enter hypnotic trance”

ADVERTISEMENT

“For ten years Anne was held in a room without a window and according to her father she didn’t need to eat much. She used to like running, but now she cannot stand”

“Keeping patients in cages has become a common practice”

“Lack of food is a reality that patients have to face every day”

“Saimun has been living with a wooden leg restraint for 5 year. He’s forty, cannot talk and lives with his brother who is also mentally impaired. They and their mother are completely dependant on charity of their neighbors”

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

“Boarding school staff is trained to deal with extreme situations with their students (left). Seapudin’s (on the right) legs have been in restraints for 9 years. The muscles have atrophied because of the lack of use”

“Patients lack food, clothes, exercise, social interactions”

“There is no financing for basic things like food, so more expensive projects like facilities’ maintenance is out of the question”

“Patients’ lives are limited by a confined space where they do everything: eat, sleep, shower”

“Some families’ of the patients have paid for special healing sessions that usually take a spiritual approach”

ADVERTISEMENT

“Young woman in shackles at Bina Lestari Foundation (left). Wediodining Lawang Psychiatric Hospital (right) has been recognized as the best mental hospital in Indonesia. It is the first hospital to realize the need for a geriatric department”

ADVERTISEMENT

“A bed is one of the biggest luxuries a patient can have”

“Social interactions are rare and are not done systematically”

“Wediodining Lawang Psychiatric Hospital – named as the best mental hospital in Indonesia”

“Life in solitude”

536Kviews

Share on Facebook
You May Like
Popular on Bored Panda
Join the conversation
Add photo comments
POST
me_42 avatar
DimitriSandikovsky
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is my country, this news never been exposed to media and I never knew it before. This is so embarrassing..

untari_sabdiana avatar
UntariSabdiana
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

hey there. as an Indonesian, I too feel ashamed not knowing about this. I have an idea. has anyone/any organization done official charity for these patients? If not, would you like to join me to make a charity for these guys? and I hope you live in jakarta, cause I think I want to start from jakarta. if you have any information regarding this matter, please inform me through my email : untari.sabdiana@gmail.com looking forward for you reply :)

Load More Replies...
xangelxgirlx avatar
SofiaAntonova
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is truly horrific.. My heart hurts for all of these poor poor people.. they are treated so badly when they did nothing to deserve it! They are not murderers! These people did not ask for their mental disorders.. :( This is a sad reality they live in.. I hope more people become aware of this treatment in Indonesia and help get those people to safety, warm clothes, a bed to sleep in, clean water and food!

alexlucky2002 avatar
AlexanderIannello
Community Member
8 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

you know why they dont care? Because they rely on f*****g rich people so they can have the good life, then the twats dont care if children die, they are all satanic f***s. they should all die if they dont care about others but their f*****g profit. they can all suck a d**k and die

Load More Replies...
Load More Comments
me_42 avatar
DimitriSandikovsky
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is my country, this news never been exposed to media and I never knew it before. This is so embarrassing..

untari_sabdiana avatar
UntariSabdiana
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

hey there. as an Indonesian, I too feel ashamed not knowing about this. I have an idea. has anyone/any organization done official charity for these patients? If not, would you like to join me to make a charity for these guys? and I hope you live in jakarta, cause I think I want to start from jakarta. if you have any information regarding this matter, please inform me through my email : untari.sabdiana@gmail.com looking forward for you reply :)

Load More Replies...
xangelxgirlx avatar
SofiaAntonova
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is truly horrific.. My heart hurts for all of these poor poor people.. they are treated so badly when they did nothing to deserve it! They are not murderers! These people did not ask for their mental disorders.. :( This is a sad reality they live in.. I hope more people become aware of this treatment in Indonesia and help get those people to safety, warm clothes, a bed to sleep in, clean water and food!

alexlucky2002 avatar
AlexanderIannello
Community Member
8 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

you know why they dont care? Because they rely on f*****g rich people so they can have the good life, then the twats dont care if children die, they are all satanic f***s. they should all die if they dont care about others but their f*****g profit. they can all suck a d**k and die

Load More Replies...
Load More Comments
Popular on Bored Panda
Trending on Bored Panda
Also on Bored Panda