Mental hospital to be open for public
In the wake of public scepticism surrounding Dr Prakitpao Thomthitchong's admission as a mentally-ill patient, Mental Health Department director general ML Dr Somchai Chakraphan plans to allow public visits to psychiatric hospitals.
"The visits will be part of our effort to make the public under¬stand psychiatric services," Somchai said. He said the visits would be arranged in a way that would not affect patients. Last month, a young woman accused the Srithanya Hospital - one of the country's oldest mental hospital - of treating Prakitpao despite the fact that he was perfectly sane. On February 19, Prakitpao's mother and elder brother sent him to the hospital. On Monday, the court ruled that there was nothing untoward with Prakitpao's hospital admission. In a related development, Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla yesterday said Prakitpao's case reflected that soci¬ety did not understand how to identify mentallyill patients. Mongkol said, "It requires a psychiatrist to identify mental illness¬es in a person and to give proper treatment." He said the Mental Health Department had prepared mentalhealth draft laws to protect the public and help those who are men¬tally ill. The draft is intended to ensure that mentally ill patients receive treatment to help them recover and not pose a threat to others. The draft said the admission of mentally ill patients to a psy¬chiatric hospital would be mandatory in events that the patients are dangerous and need treatments, or that they lack the ability to make decisions by themselves as to whether they should receive treat¬ments. An informed source said the Public Health Ministry planned to table the draft law before the Cabinet next Tuesday. Mongkol said laws on mental health had already been in force in various countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Austria, Sweden, France, Japan and Malaysia. Across the world, it is estimat¬ed that there are some 450 million people living with mental disorder - which also covers symptoms like anxiety, insomnia, stress and alcohol abuses. In Thailand, a 2003 survey found that about 20 per cent of the population had mental problems, most commonly stress. It said these people needed counselling otherwise the accumulated stress could lead to mental disorder.
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