Majority of Mental Health Issues Remain Untreated in #Laos

Like all countries, the number of Lao citizens who suffer from mental health issues are abundant. However, due to the lack of treatment options readily available to patients, 41,000 people in Laos live with their mental health issues untreated.

Socio-economic development is vital to the improvement of people’s daily lives, but also heightens the risk of mental health issues due to the increased pressures of modern existence. A psychiatrist has explained that mental health issues can be triggered or provoked by things such as socio-economic difficulties and other mental burdens, along with inadequate access to diagnosis and treatment.

At a workshop themed ‘Mental Health in Laos’ earlier this week, programme manager of the Basic Needs project and a practicing psychiatrist, Dr ChantharavadyChoulamany, stated that the biggest obstacles in providing a solution to the mental health struggles in Laos, is due to the lack of resources for effective treatments.

Dr Chantharavady went on to explain that mental disorders affect nearly 12 percent of the world’s population, an estimated 450 million people, and that one out of every four people globally will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives.

Statistics have shown that 70,000 people in Laos have reported mental health issues, but  due to inadequate personnel, facilities and financial resources, only 29,000 of those people have access to treatment and mental health services. 

Dr Chantharavady added, “According to a survey by Basic Needs, anxiety disorders rank first with a rate of 33 percent followed by schizophrenia with 19 percent, epilepsy at 14 percent, psychosis due to infectious diseases 8 percent, depression 3 percent, substance/alcohol abuse 0.7 percent, dementia 0.5 percent, and mental retardation 0.1 percent.”

People suffering from mental illnesses not only have to battle the disorder itself, but with the stigma from society as well. They are not only discriminated against, marginalized and shunned in their own community, but in some cases, are subjected to emotional and physical abuse in both mental health facilities and by the public. Inadequate quality care due to lack of qualified health professionals and dilapidated facilities could possibly lead to further deterioration of their mental state of mind.

Currently, there are just two hospitals that provide mental health units, Mahosot Hospital and 103 Military Hospital, amassing over  27,000 cases.

During this year’s World Mental Health Day on October 10, the World Health Organization will be raising awareness in communities with the aim of ensuring that people with mental health conditions can continue to live with dignity, with the theme “Dignity in Mental Health”. 

According to WHO, it does so through the promotion of human rights-oriented policy and law as well as training of health professionals, respect for informed consent to treatment, inclusion in decision-making processes, and public information campaigns.

Source - Laotian Times

#Thailand - Prayut tells nurses to stop protesting over poor pay and working conditions

About 300 nurses gather in the yard in front of Phumin Temple in Nan province yesterday to press their demand that the government recruit more nurses as permanent civil servants. 

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PRIME MINISTER General Prayut Chan-o-cha responded yesterday to ongoing protests by nurses, saying the allocation of civil service posts that they are demanding must comply with the workforce reformation plan every five to 10 years.

Prayut said every ministry had to follow the rules in enrolling new workers and had to manage their vacant positions first before asking for more staff.

He also urged the nurses not to protest and make the issue political.

Nurses have pledged to continue their protest amid complaints about understaffing, tough working conditions and unfair salaries. The Public Health Ministry has asked them to be patient, stating that nursing positions are being allocated.

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Hundreds of nurses in Nan demonstrated yesterday to show solidarity with government-employed nurses campaigning for more permanent civil servant positions and fairer benefits.

Pattanaphong Wongbunyanuwej, a representative of the Nan nurses, said the group gathered in a symbolic gesture to raise their voices to the government, urging it to allocate more civil servant positions and improve the working conditions and benefits for nurses. “We want the government to understand the hardship of nurses, as we are working extraordinarily long hours with unfair remuneration, so we gather today to show our demands,” Pattanaphong said.

Meanwhile, the Temporary Employee Professional Nurse Network fan page on Facebook invited temporary nurses to fill in a questionnaire to survey the number who intend to resign if the proposal to increase civil servant position for nurses is rejected by the government.

Dr Tassana Boontong, president of the Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council, stressed that the civil servant position is very important for a nurse, as it can guarantee career stability and provide proper health benefits for their family.

“This problem [the nurses unable to be enrolled as civil servants] causes 48 per cent of new nurses to resign after the first year at work. In the second year, 25 per cent of those remaining follow suit. How can we have enough nurses in the system, as we cannot save them in the system in the first place?” Tassana said.

“Our research showed that the nurses worked up to 37 shifts per month, but their payment is low compared to the doctors. There is also not enough welfare for the nurses if they are injured or die due to their work.”

She said that the performance-based pay for nurses was almost 28 times lower than for doctors, even though they work harder. In case of an accident, nurses receive very little benefits to compensate for their loss. “This is a good time for the policy makers to understand nurses’ hardship. They give up their energy, time and personal lives to take care of the patients and look after our health, so they should have job security and better welfare in return,” she said.

Tassana said the Nursing and Midwifery Council had proposed 10,992 civil servant positions for nurses over three years. This meant that only 3,662 positions were sought from the government per year, which was not a large amount.

However, she said she understood that the Public Health Ministry was working hard to manage the vacant positions for nurses to meet the proposed positions and asked fellow nurses to be patient during this allocation.

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Source - TheNation

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