Good news. Cambodia sorely needs more mental health treatment in the provinces.

September 5, 2019
Mental illness centre opens in Kandal province
​​​The Rehabilitation Care Centre for Mental Disorder was officially opened yesterday in Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district.

Interior Minister Sar Kheng and other government officials presided over an opening ceremony yesterday. He said the centre is easily accessible for people across the Kingdom.

“We established this centre for all mental health patients throughout the country,” Mr Kheng said. “They can stay and receive treatment services.”

“It’s not only for people in Kandal province and its surrounding provinces, but it’s for people in all 25 provinces,” he added. “The infrastructure in our country is good, so travelling from place to place is not as difficult as it was before.”

During its initial trial phase in July, 48 mental illness patients were transferred to the centre from the Phnom Penh Transit Centre.

Touch Chany, director-general of the Social Affairs Ministry’s general technical department, at the time said the new centre can hold more than 200 patients.

Social Affairs Minister Vong Sauth said the construction began in February, 2017, and it has cost the government more than $1.7 million to erect.

“This centre has spent about $1.7 million from the state’s coffers,” he said.

He said patients who are currently seeking treatment at the Phnom Penh Transit Centre can now receive quality care at the new centre.

Mr Sauth said his ministry has cooperated with the Health and Interior Ministries to manage the building and employ 68 ministry staffers. He noted the centre will receive anyone without prejudice.

“The centre primarily provides care and rehabilitation services for mentally ill people living in public places and pagodas,” Mr Sauth said. “It’s also for people abandoned by families and communities.”
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50640402/m ... -province/

Shackled and locked up, Cambodia’s mentally ill languish in limbo
By Leonie Kijewski
Feb. 16, 2020 at 4:00 a.m. GMT+13

SIEM REAP, Cambodia — The slender 15-year-old shifts restlessly from one knee to the other on the wooden floor of his family's houseboat. He has just finished a dinner of rice and fish, but he can't play with the other children: His ankle is shackled, and he can move only within a three-foot radius.

"Our boy has a mental problem," said his mother, Seam, a shy woman in her early 40s with long hair and a broad smile. "We put him in chains because he likes to smell gasoline, and when he does that too much, he damages his health. So we need to keep him from getting out."

With seven other children to manage and no mental health clinic in their area, Seam, who asked not to be identified by her full name or her son's for fear of retribution from the community, said she had no other choice.

Her son's fate is not an isolated case. The few mental health facilities in Cambodia, a nation plagued by poverty, are poorly funded and ill-equipped, leaving patients languishing at home without adequate treatment.

People with mental disabilities are often chained up by relatives because their families don't have the resources to care for them, said Chhim Sotheara, director of the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Cambodia, adding that a lack of treatment options and reliance on traditional healing methods compound the problem.

His organization is working with dozens of families to treat mental health problems and has unchained more than 100 individuals over recent years, he said. His team recently received eight cases in one week.

Last year, the government opened the Kandal Stueng health center, the only facility in Cambodia that provides housing, treatment and rehabilitation for people with mental illnesses. But it lacks resources, and patients' freedom is severely restricted.

"We have the rule that the people who have a mental problem cannot go out from this center by themselves," said Nguon Kosal, the center's director. "We do that because we want to protect them."

Designed for 200 patients, the center, located about 15 miles from the capital, Phnom Penh, is housing 20 men and 28 women during an indefinite trial phase; most were brought in from the Prey Speu detention center, where they had been held until July.

Five patients are locked in each 200-square-foot room. The windows are barred, and there are no mattresses on the iron bed frames. Thick padlocks hang in front of beige doors.

The Washington Post interviewed some of the patients, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the center's officials were concerned about possible reprisals and patients' privacy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as ... story.html

More psych patients now eligible for care
Mom Kunthear | Publication date 08 February 2022 | 21:44 ICT

The criteria for Cambodians eligible to receive treatment and care at the mental rehabilitation centre in Kandal province has been expanded, with a senior official urging municipal and provincial authorities to send eligible residents to the facility.

The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY) said the centre, located in the province’s Kandal Stung district, has issued new guidelines expanding its criteria of eligibility such that anyone who exhibits violent behaviour or otherwise threaten the safety of their families and communities can now be accepted as a patient.

Admission has been extended to those who are currently residing with family. Previously, only the homeless and those who were unable to afford care were eligible for treatment.

The ministry’s Social Welfare Department issued the new guidelines on the reception and care of patients at the centre on February 7.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... gible-care