Bring Mental Health Care to Cambodians

A young man, 25 years old, is the son of a poor widow and lives under the makeshift roof of his relative’s house. The patient’s leg was chained attaching to a mango tree stump. While the mango tree is growing bigger, the chain which was put around the mango tree stump for locking him up, is now planted in the mango tree bark under the old cottage made with iron sheet. His mother emotionally mentioned that, firstly her son was hit in the head by gangsters. Before he had a severe mental illness, he had also drug addiction and up to now his illness has been suffered for 04 years. His mother took him to see a psychiatrist at a public hospital in Phnom Penh. The patient has easily taken his medicines. After receiving the treatment for 04 months, his mother dropped out the treatment because of no money. His mother washes clothes by her hands for a small fee which is hired by other people in order to buy food for his son.

He has aggressive behavior and violence on his mother and others. At that time, his mother has no alternative, she decided to seek help from commune police to chain him for safety attaching to the mango tree. His mother had injured by his action. He used to beat his mother and throw something at her head. He violently abused his mother and other people around him. When his mother was bringing rice or food to him, he picked up a branch of a tree and threw it at her, along with his food. The patient laughed alone, spoke alone, and couldn’t communicate with. The patient was anemic and malnourished because the mother was poor.

In collaboration with the Kandal Provincial Department of Women's Affairs, District and Commune Committees for Women's and Children's Affairs as well TPO treatment team, which went to see that patient for treatment at his house. When the team arrived, the patient could not communicate and was not interested in the team's presence. Even though the team tried talking with him, but he ignored. The psychiatrist interviewed the patient and his mother. And then the psychiatrist prescribed medicines for him and his mother who is his caregiver keep that medicine and give him medicine to take. A psychologist also did awareness raising with family members and his neighbors about the causes of schizophrenia and effective treatment in order seek more support for the patient.

After receiving the treatment for ten weeks, the patient recovered from his symptoms of schizophrenia, and his mother decided to free her son (unchain her son). The mother is very happy and thanks TPO and charity persons for making the treatment available for her son and make him free from chain in order to integrate into the family.