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Shocking Photos Of Indonesia’s Mentally Ill Patients Show Their Disturbing Living Conditions
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)
RELATED:
“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”
“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”
“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”
“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”
“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”
“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”
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What do you think ?
DimitriSandikovsky 9 years ago
This is my country, this news never been exposed to media and I never knew it before. This is so embarrassing..
UntariSabdiana 9 years ago
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...
SofiaAntonova 9 years ago
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!
RachnaDaryani 9 years ago
Hi ! I just read the article by bored panda - about the condition of mentally challenged people in indonesia . We are a group who do charity work in Jakarta .Could you please help me contact someone who can tell how can we help these people. Thank you for making us aware of their but we as a society need to do something for them . Even if making sure they get proper meals. Pls guide Thank you Rgds Rachna
WhiteUnicorn 9 years ago
I agree with JagungBakar...let's a massive campaign on this one. let's spread the awareness. I am thinking doing it but need more people in the same boat for discussion.
Load More Replies...
BelindaRenaBachtiar 9 years ago
"Spiritual Approach" means exorcism, pushing, banishing, pointing fingers as if the family of the patients has done something awfully wrong so the karma reached them into their children's soul, and turned them into mentally disturbed persons. Sadly, because people in Indonesia mostly still holds their traditions and religions dearly, they refused to seek help from the professional, and seek help from the nearest Pak Kiai to perform some rituals that helped people with mental illness.
SherryStraus 9 years ago
Horrible,inhuman and just sad people are treated like that by others.At least food and shelter should be granted by family or government.
TracyScott 9 years ago
Spiritual healing? So basically mentality ill people are trying to heal other mentality ill people. First the need a better facility and basic living standards. Second they need real specialized doctors.
Cherry Warr 9 years ago
unfortunately the 'specialized doctors' are not the ones there doing their best to help. It may not be your idea of what they 'need' but at least they have that much. Bless those that are looking these poor people in the eye and trying to help, even if it isn't 'adequate' to those knowing no more of poverty than the lack of the latest edition of the IPhone.
Load More Replies...
LaurenElizabeth 9 years ago
These people are treated worse than rapists, paedophiles and murderer's. It's absolutley awful and disgusting! How do we live in a world where things like this still go on? Heartbreaking! Makes you think how much we should appreciate every tiny little thing we have like a front door and the Freedom to walk out of it.
Cherry Warr 9 years ago
Makes me want to slap every one of those entitled college students ranting about 'wage slaves'. They have not a clue.
Load More Replies...
OliaShevarova 9 years ago
I can't accept the fact that their families are doing this to them...
EvaTóthová 9 years ago
it is sad, but because of the lack of knowledge, they don't know anything else. villagers living from day to day, hard working, and all of the sudden, the child turns out to me mentally ill- that's the only solution they have.
Load More Replies... DimitriSandikovsky 9 years ago
This is my country, this news never been exposed to media and I never knew it before. This is so embarrassing..
UntariSabdiana 9 years ago
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... SofiaAntonova 9 years ago
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!
RachnaDaryani 9 years ago
Hi ! I just read the article by bored panda - about the condition of mentally challenged people in indonesia . We are a group who do charity work in Jakarta .Could you please help me contact someone who can tell how can we help these people. Thank you for making us aware of their but we as a society need to do something for them . Even if making sure they get proper meals. Pls guide Thank you Rgds Rachna
WhiteUnicorn 9 years ago
I agree with JagungBakar...let's a massive campaign on this one. let's spread the awareness. I am thinking doing it but need more people in the same boat for discussion.
Load More Replies... BelindaRenaBachtiar 9 years ago
"Spiritual Approach" means exorcism, pushing, banishing, pointing fingers as if the family of the patients has done something awfully wrong so the karma reached them into their children's soul, and turned them into mentally disturbed persons. Sadly, because people in Indonesia mostly still holds their traditions and religions dearly, they refused to seek help from the professional, and seek help from the nearest Pak Kiai to perform some rituals that helped people with mental illness.
SherryStraus 9 years ago
Horrible,inhuman and just sad people are treated like that by others.At least food and shelter should be granted by family or government.
TracyScott 9 years ago
Spiritual healing? So basically mentality ill people are trying to heal other mentality ill people. First the need a better facility and basic living standards. Second they need real specialized doctors.
Cherry Warr 9 years ago
unfortunately the 'specialized doctors' are not the ones there doing their best to help. It may not be your idea of what they 'need' but at least they have that much. Bless those that are looking these poor people in the eye and trying to help, even if it isn't 'adequate' to those knowing no more of poverty than the lack of the latest edition of the IPhone.
Load More Replies... LaurenElizabeth 9 years ago
These people are treated worse than rapists, paedophiles and murderer's. It's absolutley awful and disgusting! How do we live in a world where things like this still go on? Heartbreaking! Makes you think how much we should appreciate every tiny little thing we have like a front door and the Freedom to walk out of it.
Cherry Warr 9 years ago
Makes me want to slap every one of those entitled college students ranting about 'wage slaves'. They have not a clue.
Load More Replies... OliaShevarova 9 years ago
I can't accept the fact that their families are doing this to them...
EvaTóthová 9 years ago
it is sad, but because of the lack of knowledge, they don't know anything else. villagers living from day to day, hard working, and all of the sudden, the child turns out to me mentally ill- that's the only solution they have.
Load More Replies... You May Like “This Man Was A Literal Child”: 76 Times Men Assumed They Knew More Than Women Woman Shows How A Bloody Pad Was The Only Thing That Would Get Men To Stop Following Her
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