It’s no secret that Malaysians streets are home to the homeless, and that many of them actually have severe mental illnesses. But, shouldn’t there be facilities that can get them off the streets and give them the help that they need?
This is the question that Uncle Kentang has brought up, especially following the incident where a man in Ampang was caught after raging with a butcher knife in public.
Taking to his Facebook page, he wrote, “Police, JKM (Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat) or KKM (Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia)? All is not. If he is ‘mental’, no one will care. If you call 15999, they will tell you to call the police, because JKM cannot help in ‘mental’ cases.”
“Then the police will come. And they will be taken to the hospital for a mental health check and for medication. After a few days, the doctor will tell the patient to go home because the hospital is not a mental health care center and not a hotel or boarding home.”
And with little to no proper guidance, the person struggling with severe mental health problems will be released back into society.
Uncle Kentang also explained that only cases where patients are aggressive and a danger to community member will be referred to mental health hospitals such as Hospital Bahagia in Tanjung Rambutan.
“If he is crazy and not aggressive enough, then they will be sent back to the community and their family. Wait for them to explode, grab a knife to hurt people, then they will be sent to Tanjung Rambutan.”
And so, instead of waiting for a time bomb to go off, why not have facilities prepared to help people cope with severe mental stress and problems before bad things happen?
With that, Uncle Kentang suggests and urges the government to allocate funds towards establishing said facilities.
“DSAI (Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim) needs to call all experts, psychiatrists and caregivers who are professionals to discuss this. We need to have a transit house for patients like this. The government has never taken this matter seriously. Usually, the government will let this go and hope that NGOs will help,”
“Now, with the Unity Government, we hope YB will have the heart and mind to solve this problem. I believe that ‘mental’ patients will increase with more and more stress because of the economic turmoil and humans are less loving and lacking in religious knowledge,” he shared.
Why wait until it is too late to help those who are clearly struggling?
We genuinely hope that the new government will take into serious consideration Uncle Kentang’s suggestion.
What do you think about this? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
