| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia : As tsunami waves advanced, doctor Akmal Jawandi threw open locked cells at the main sanatorium in Indonesia's Aceh province, an act that spared his patients the fate of thousands who perished.
But while the 315 occupants may have survived, Banda Aceh Mental Hospital has been hit by a new tidal wave, this time a flood of psychiatric cases as thousands of traumatised victims seek help it is no longer equipped to provide.
"No in-patient died," said Jawandi, recalling how paramedics swiftly removed three-inch double padlocks on wards housing the hospital's most violent and unstable patients.
"We ordered the patients to go up to the upper floors," the general physician told AFP. "Some followed the orders, but some ran away," he said.
It took weeks to track down the runaways, he said. "Some came back later alone, while others were escorted back by their families."
But with them have arrived about 30 people a day, referred to the sanatorium as they struggle to cope with the emotional fallout of one of the world's largest natural disasters.
Most are suffering from post-trauma stress, said Sulaksmi, a psychiatrist from Yogyakarta, a central Indonesian university city, who has been sent to replace staff absent due to family deaths or loss of their homes.
The World Health Organisation says as many as 500,000 people could be facing some form of mental distress in Aceh and many will develop post-trauma symptoms, which include debilitating panic attacks.
Although work is underway to build community centres and train local staff to help deal with the huge numbers of potential cases, at the moment there is little in place to help them, placing extra strain on Aceh's main sanatorium.
Among the new patient arrivals is Irmawansa, a powerfully built lab technician from the state-run university who, according to his wife Husna, was brought from their nearby village by soldiers after he turned violent.
"He said he was angry at the widespread corruption in government," the distraught mother of four said as her husband stared sullenly across the green-painted bars while their teenage daughter and toddler son looked on.
Outside the main cell door, two paramedics handed out anti-psychosis pills to the patients, who also used plastic cups to scoop drinking water from a plastic pail on the floor.
The less violent patients wander aimlessly along the corridors. Some lie on benches, oblivious to workers using rakes and shovels to clear sewers. The flower gardens in between the buildings are gone, covered by drying mud.
Sulaksmi, the reinforcement doctor, said she feared the tsunami would affect the recovery and treatment prospects of those who were patients before the disaster.
She said one man who appeared to have been making progress on medication and psychiatric treatment had shown signs of regression after the tsunami.
"He looks sad again," she added.
One challenge for the doctors is to reconstitute the case files. Many of the patients' records lie soaked in their blue folders at Sulaksmi's office floor.
Jawandi, the doctor on duty at the time of the disaster, said the tsunami had acted as a "trigger factor" for many people already suffering mental anguish in an area ravaged by a decades-long civil war.
"They were already sick, 10 or five years before. The tsunami made their sickness come back," he said. "This has been a conflict area."
Separatist rebels have fought a 28-year struggle for independence in Aceh. Sporadic attempts to find peace in the province broke down in early 2003, prompting the government to seal off the region and launch a major offensive.
With violence an everyday event, the sanatorium's outpatient case load averaged 40 a day even before the disaster pulverised the facility.
- AFP
 |
| Asian Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster: Channelnewsasia.com special coverage >>> |
|
|
