Established in May 2005, the Suryani Institute for Mental Health (SIMH) has just celebrated their fifth anniversary. Responsible for maintaining Balinese culture that is based on Hinduism and guide the Balinese people to reach unity and happiness. They play an active role in understanding life in the Balinese community in a holistic way to create a new generation for Bali that is intelligent, independent, creative, and healthy in a physical, mental, social and spiritual sense.
The SIMH constitutes a real case study in the mental health issues that government don’t want to care. Frequently serving as the pioneer of mental health prevention and community works. “We generally help people who are not being helped by anyone. We want to remind the families, society and the government that these people are not useless”, said Professor Suryani as the Founder and Director of the institute during her mission of mercy helping the mentally ill people.
Although in their fifth year they have to face budget problem that been slashed by the governor of Bali, and that would mean that they have to stop giving out the medication and have to tell the volunteers to tell the village leader, the local authorities, the health authorities and the doctors that the therapy for the 326 patients has been stopped. Surely, millions of dollars must flow into Bali’s tourist traps but very little of it if any, it seems – makes it out to poor, local villagers.
Comments are closed.