Is this the Way to Treat a God?

This video is 15 minutes, but well worth watching all the way through.

I wasn’t aware of this clip when I wrote my post about mental illness in Indonesia.  Lack of treatment of psychotic patients leads to them being chained or imprisoned for years as their families have no other means of restraining them.

I did not know that there are already some Indonesian doctors who have taken it upon themselves to liberate the mentally ill.  This clip shows the miraculous changes that modern medicine can bring to the psychotic.  In every case, they were able to recover sufficiently to contribute at least something to their communities.

Unfortunately, many of the families involved are too poor to afford the drugs.  As the funding for this program has been dramatically reduced, there is a danger that some of them will have to revert to their previous life in chains.  There is an interview with Bali’s Governor, who was responsible for cutting the funding even though his own grandmother suffered the same fate of being chained for her insanity.  I would love to know the true story behind this budget cut (anyone able to enlighten me?).

Every person deserves to be treated with respect.  Maybe not as much as we would give to a god, but at least better treatment than the mentally ill are getting in many countries today.

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Tags: Bali, indonesia, Indonesian people, mental illness, treatment