Cambodian psychiatrist Sotheara Chhim, from non-profit group the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization - Cambodia (Photo: VOA - A. Belford)Aubrey Belford, VOA
Kampot, Cambodia 15 April 2010
Cambodia is a country with a more traumatic past than most. Recent decades have seen civil war, followed by genocide and more civil war. Despite a growing economy and rapid development, mental health workers say the psychological scars have yet to heal.
Cambodia suffers from high rates of mental illness, and very little treatment.
Psychiatrist Sotheara Chhim, who heads the Cambodia office of Dutch aid group, the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization, or TPO, says the country's dark past bubbles up in an exceptionally high rate of mental illness.
"In my opinion I think the past plays a very important role in attributing to the problem…. I think every Cambodian is like a glass carrying some water, meaning the traumatic past. If more water is put in, the glass fills easier than an empty glass," says Chhim.
A study by TPO found 35 percent of Cambodians suffer from some kind of psychiatric problem, from mild disturbance to full-blown illness.
The legacy of past conflict means more than a quarter of the population shows signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, and over 10 percent suffer major depression, even though most of the population is too young to remember the darkest years.
But there is little treatment. Only one percent of the government's health budget goes to mental health. For a population of 14 million people, there are about 40 psychiatrists, and only around 10 of them outside the capital Phnom Penh.
At the mental health ward at a hospital in the southern town of Kampot, Dr. Kim Vutha complains of a shortage of funds and medications.
He says Cambodians, particularly in rural areas, usually seek out mainstream treatment as a last resort after trying temples and traditional healers. In villages, it is quite common to find the seriously ill chained to posts or kept in makeshift cages.
Satya Pholy, a counselor in Phnom Penh, says that despite the prevalence of mental illness, many Cambodians simply do not want to acknowledge the problem.
"There's a stigma in Cambodian society," he said. "If someone talks to a counselor or goes to a psychologist or psychiatrist, 'Oh he's crazy, what's wrong with him?'"
He says traditional culture often plays a role in how mental illness is address.
"It goes back to animism and Buddhism and Hinduism, where most illnesses come from the unbalance of the wind, the soil, the fire and the water. Also, if you offended the spirits of the mountains or of the trees, you know, then the spirit will try to get you back, have revenge, make you sick," he explains.
Foreign aid organizations can not fill the gap. Sotheara Chhim says the economic crisis has meant less money for his organization, which travels around the country doing mental health outreach.
"I think mental health gets less attention, left behind in Cambodia. [The] Ministry of Health used to say keep saying mental health is one of the priorities but I don't think it's a priority," he said.
Sotheara says donor cuts forced him to fire 50 employees late last year.
Among the small government efforts to deal with the crisis, 10 new psychiatrists are being trained every year. But people working in the field, such as Sotheara, say this is still not enough.
Cambodia suffers from high rates of mental illness, and very little treatment.
Psychiatrist Sotheara Chhim, who heads the Cambodia office of Dutch aid group, the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization, or TPO, says the country's dark past bubbles up in an exceptionally high rate of mental illness.
"In my opinion I think the past plays a very important role in attributing to the problem…. I think every Cambodian is like a glass carrying some water, meaning the traumatic past. If more water is put in, the glass fills easier than an empty glass," says Chhim.
A study by TPO found 35 percent of Cambodians suffer from some kind of psychiatric problem, from mild disturbance to full-blown illness.
The legacy of past conflict means more than a quarter of the population shows signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, and over 10 percent suffer major depression, even though most of the population is too young to remember the darkest years.
But there is little treatment. Only one percent of the government's health budget goes to mental health. For a population of 14 million people, there are about 40 psychiatrists, and only around 10 of them outside the capital Phnom Penh.
At the mental health ward at a hospital in the southern town of Kampot, Dr. Kim Vutha complains of a shortage of funds and medications.
He says Cambodians, particularly in rural areas, usually seek out mainstream treatment as a last resort after trying temples and traditional healers. In villages, it is quite common to find the seriously ill chained to posts or kept in makeshift cages.
Satya Pholy, a counselor in Phnom Penh, says that despite the prevalence of mental illness, many Cambodians simply do not want to acknowledge the problem.
"There's a stigma in Cambodian society," he said. "If someone talks to a counselor or goes to a psychologist or psychiatrist, 'Oh he's crazy, what's wrong with him?'"
He says traditional culture often plays a role in how mental illness is address.
"It goes back to animism and Buddhism and Hinduism, where most illnesses come from the unbalance of the wind, the soil, the fire and the water. Also, if you offended the spirits of the mountains or of the trees, you know, then the spirit will try to get you back, have revenge, make you sick," he explains.
Foreign aid organizations can not fill the gap. Sotheara Chhim says the economic crisis has meant less money for his organization, which travels around the country doing mental health outreach.
"I think mental health gets less attention, left behind in Cambodia. [The] Ministry of Health used to say keep saying mental health is one of the priorities but I don't think it's a priority," he said.
Sotheara says donor cuts forced him to fire 50 employees late last year.
Among the small government efforts to deal with the crisis, 10 new psychiatrists are being trained every year. But people working in the field, such as Sotheara, say this is still not enough.
7 comments:
khmer people need a lot of support, understanding, patient, etc from experts in the field of psychiatry and psychology as well. people have a lot of losses and experienced way too many trauma with their own eyes. it's like they have photograhic memories of such trauma or scenes of violence, etc... it's like post traumatic syndrome. i mean most people would like to forget, but sometimes they can't help it with tears coming out of their eyes when they commemorate their losses, pains and sufferings. they all need experts' intervention for sure.
Mental issue... Including one working for the so called Khmer INTELLIGENCE. Hypocrite.
I can see that khmer people are very strong people, most of them have succeed well beyond expected. Majority of khmer people who are living abroad have been graduated or have a successful business despite the impacted of war crime against the humanity. In fact, some made into a multi-million dollars rich. Why? it is because we learnt from the past and turn it into a positive outcome, like life is too short to just sit around and feeling sorry for ourselves, instead we believe in "do something rather than doing nothing at all" and at the same time we try to avoid all bad things from ever happen to us again. In other words trust no one, but keep on living,learning, laughing and loving for life. Aust
Angelina Jolie said Khmer people are amazing and a Khmer baby boy inspired her life.
Khmer people have overcomed many obstacles. We are fighters, survivors, and persevere. Yet, we 're always humble. That's what I love about Khmer! Hangin' in there! I know, things are tough!!! Hopefully we'll have more support in the long run. In the meantime, Mr. Chhim continues to do whatever you've doing.
khmer people endure. we are the survivors through hard time with very little, etc... we can and will survive in any circumstances. god bless all khmer people and citizens.
Early this month, 3 Thais entered Cambodia illegally, were detained and handed back to Thai authority after being pardoned by king Sy hak Mony.
Now 7 more being tried in Cambodia for illegal entry.
Hun Sen' s government sent troops to Thai/Khmer border " we' ll protect even 1mm of from being lost to Thai" but Yourn can put the border posts any where they want. If Khmer protest that we loss our land to Yourn, they will be arrested and thrown in jail by our own government. Their responses always the same lines " we loss some and gain some" even they know we loss a lot of land but too coward to admit because every body afraid that they will loss their rank.
Yourns can come to Cambodia any time. Some come to do the logging in Rat Ta nak kiri. When people complained to authority, they use the same lines " we did not know that but we' ll investigate" but when our Khmer people cut some trees to build their house, they got arrested right away.
When people caught those bustard VN loggers, the authority let them go right away.
VN army claiming to come to Cambodia to look for bones of their soldiers who died in 79's war, they returned with truck loads of Khmer lumber not Yourn' s bones. They know there is no more Yourn' s bones in Cambodia but they just want to use the phrases to remind Hun Sen that.
A lot of Khmer go to Siam to work, legally/illegally.
Khmer Surin allowed to study Khmer, speak Khmer, listen to Khmer language and celebrate Khmer culture.
Yourn dos not allow Khmer Krome to do all theses but demands that illegal Yourn in Cambodia be allowed to study Yourn and listen to Yourn TV an dradio
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