Letters to the Editor: RIPAS mental health unit needs new approach

Dear Editor

ACCORDING to the Minister of Health, Brunei Darussalam, some 11, 000 patients have been registered with the Mental Health Services (BT, Oct 10, 2012).

The number is an alarming development for a small nation with less than 400,000 people and the situation could worsen in the coming months.

I was surprised for what I had seen in RIPAS mental health unit during my stay in the country that made me and my family sad and angry.

As a responsible Muslim, I ask the authorities why they have kept quiet all these years without proper monitoring and follow up action.

It's sad that patients are kept indoors all day. They are not allowed to go out under the supervision of qualified doctors and experienced nurses for a rehabilitation programme so that they could become part and parcel of the community.

Some doctors are good at giving their patients large quantities of medicine to keep them calm but as a matter of fact their health situation continues to worsen.

Some parents have taken them out as they found it hopeless to keep them there.

As a responsible person, I wrote to those in power in the unit that these patients needed to be out doing some activities so that after sometime they could be integrated in the community but sadly my request was declined and they never replied.

Thanks to Allah, here in New Zealand (where my family and I are living), when I write to any minister he replies within a month. This shows how responsible and accountable they are.

I request the Brunei Minister of Health, who is a caring person and has made major improvement in the hospital, to make a surprise visit to the unit to see what is going on or I strongly suggest he send one of his staff members to the unit to observe what is going on and ask the patients about the prevailing conditions there.

He also needs to tell the doctors, especially those who have been serving in this unit for many years, that their time is up for retirement.

The hospital needs the new generation of young Bruneian doctors, working in UK and Singapore, to return home so that they can look after patients who need their urgent help before it is too late.

How far RIPAS management would succeed, only time and history will tell.

Dr Saad Al-Harran,
New Zealand

Dipetik dari - The Brunei Times