PNG’s mental health woes as Laloki struggles to make ends meet
27 March 2016
FLORENCE JONDUO
IN EVERY Papua New Guinean town, you will find people who are mentally affected roaming the streets day in and day out.
They seem to have no families or relatives or carers. They eat whatever’s been left in trash bins. There is no formal data collection system for mental disorders in PNG.
According to a 2004 world mental health survey, 13% of a country's adult population will experience a mental disorder over their lifetime; for three percent of people it will be serious.
Apply this to PNG and we can estimate that 500,000 adults will experience a mental health disorder and for 100,000 of them it will be severe.
The Laloki Psychiatric Hospital, which is the only long term psychiatric facility in the entire country, was established in 1967 as a mental health centre built to cater for 100 patients.
According to the hospital’s Dr Ludwig Nanawar, patient numbers have been increased greatly over the years.
PNG’s mental health plan (2001-2010) had a goal to reduce the number of people suffering and dying as a result of mental illness through prevention of substance abuse, access to quality care and effective rehabilitation.
A number of goals were enunciated:
1.1 Improve mental health services available at provincial and district level
1.2 Review and update the Public Health Act (part 8) (Chapter No. 266)/Mental Health Act
1.3 Increase the number of staff and training positions and support training
1.4 Develop guidelines and material for in-service training
1.5 Develop and distribute a standard treatment manual
1.6 Establish and maintain psychiatric unites in all public hospitals and the four regional hospitals
1.7 Upgrade and maintain Laloki Mental Hospital
1.8 Secure and maintain adequate levels of medicines, equipment and other supplies
1.9 Secure and maintain inter sectorial collaboration in forensic psychiatry, domestic violence against women, and the control and prevention of substance abuses
1.10 Develop guidelines and materials for community awareness and education
1.11 Develop policy guidelines and promote support for community mental health and counseling services
1.12 Establish and maintain a monitoring and reporting system.
But these goals have not been fully met by the responsible authorities judging from what psychiatric professionals have told EMTV’s Olsem Wanem Program.
The Laloki Psychiatric Hospital was allocated only K8 million for its 2016 recurrent budget. Is this enough money to run the only long-term psychiatric facility in the entire country?
Infrastructure at Laloki is in dire need of maintenance and lack of patient space is a very crucial issue.
Patients with mental disorders have to be kept separately as having more than one person in a room can be dangerous.
Laloki has more than one patient in a room and the safety is a risk. The staff cannot do much to ease this situation except monitor patients to make sure no harm is done.
The question remains whether the responsible authorities aware of what is happening in this area of care?
Getting our priorities right will make a significant difference to this important service for the people of Papua New Guinea.
In 2012, the PAC described Laloki as a "national disgrace" and made a scathing report on the institution. The Chairman said that the place breaches almost every human right identified by the UN and urged Government to immediately address the situation. What was done ? Nating.
Children sleep in locked wards with the criminally insane, TB patient, AIDS infected and geriatric patients. Murder and suicide is frequent. The hospital was at least 500% over populated with every sort of mental patient imaginable.
The staff housing was described by the PAC as " the worst we have ever seen" - and that was saying something.
there was no water and had not been for years.
As if this disgusting situation was not enough, right next door is a modern complex owned and operated by the Health Department which was not used - except by a former Minister for Health who rented it out to private tenants for his own profit.
What did the Foreign Aid "practitioners" do? Nating. What did the Department of Health do? Nating. What did the Government do? Nating.
I strongly suggest you read the PAC report which was accepted by the National Parliament and is therefore a report of the Parliament itself. The situation was so bad that two members of the Committee who visited the place wept at what they saw.
The Committee had difficulty describing the state of the place so, for the first time, included photos in order hat no-one could avoid seeing the state of the institution.
Posted by: Will Sef | 28 March 2016 at 01:54 PM
Florence, thank you for speaking up for the forgotten and the voiceless members of our society.
Posted by: Joe Herman | 27 March 2016 at 03:06 PM
Florence, I watched your very popular ‘Olsem Wanem’ program last night on EMTV and it is refreshing to read this revealing piece of journalism here.
I hope our Health Minister, Michael Malabag, also watched the program and reads this. The Laloki Psychiatric hospital is an important institution for mental patients - the only one in the country. It is located in Port Moresby and one would expect all institutions in the nation’s capital to be up to date.
The government should not only concentrate on building super highways in the city which benefit only multi-million contractors. But not the deaf, the lame, the sick, the poor let alone mental patients.
But then again, nobody seems interested in our historical sites, scared carvings at Parliament House or the environment. The mental health patients will continue to live like that for some time it seems.
Posted by: Daniel Kumbon | 27 March 2016 at 07:47 AM