[Unpad.ac.id, 29/04/2013] Every year, the number of people with mental disorders is increasing, both minor and severe mental disorders. However, this issue has not received much attention in Indonesia. Mental-health counseling program for public is still uncommon.
“That’s why we need mental-health nurses to raise public awareness about mental health problems. Mental health promotion is still relatively rare to find. Besides, the government has not given much attention to this particular health problem,” said Dr. Suryani, SKp., MHSc., a lecturer at the Faculty of Nursery of Universitas Padjadjaran, when met at the campus of Jatinangor some time ago.
Dr. Suryani explained that the stigma of mental illness in Indonesia is so strong that people with mental illness are often excluded from the society. “They should not be excommunicated, because if they are, it will only worsen their conditions. They should be embraced and given support. Don’t put so much mental burden on them,” said the lecturer who was born in Pariaman February 2, 1968.
In many cases, people with mental disorders are only given treatment and medication in the hospital. Once they get well and leave the hospital, no more special treatment is given. Yet, according to Dr. Suryani, recovering from mental illness is a journey of challenge. It is not easy for mental patients to fully recover. It takes a long time for them to pull through. That’s why they need continuous assistance until they are fully recovered. In addition, they need support from family and community to be able to make recovery.
Ideally, there should be further treatments at the local health center for patients who have been sent home. Support groups could be very helpful for them. They can share experience with other patients in there, which actually provide them with strong encouragement to heal. This is, of course, conducted with the aid from nurses to help the mental patients to achieve full recovery. It’s time for our health professionals to apply the recovery concept in dealing with schizophrenia patients, so that they can appreciate and believe in individual ability to heal,” explained Dr. Suryani.
In addition to severe mental disorders, there are also minor mental disorders which most people have experienced, such as sadness, stress due to various problems in daily life such as traffic jam, excessive workload, and so on. Although minor, Dr. Suryani said that it cannot be left untreated. Most severe mental disorders come from minor mental disorders that continually take place in a long period of time.
When overwhelmed by sadness, we should rise up and try not to dissolve in grief. We should not keep the problem to ourselves. We should talk out the problem and try to find a solution to it. Besides that, we should learn to recognize our coping mechanism, which is self-defense mechanism or the way people deal with problems.
“Everybody has different coping mechanisms when faced with problems. A healthy coping mechanism is the constructive one, which is focused on how to solve the problem, instead of how to strive to satisfy the ego, which is very destructive,” explained Dr. Suryani.
The author of the book “Therapeutic Communication: Theory and Practice” also explained that people who have constructive coping mechanisms will have a more healthy life, while those who have destructive mechanisms are very vulnerable to mental illness.
“At the Faculty of Medicine of Universitas Padjadjaran, we provide public mental-health counseling to promote prevention of mental disorders, in which the students are also involved. We hope to educate the public about how to cope with emotional stresses and to keep themselves from mental disorders through this counseling,” explained the woman who, from 1995 until 2008, served as the head of psychiatric and mental health nursing department of Unpad Faculty of Medicine.
Dr Suryani’s interest in Psychiatric Nursing Science began to grow when she was pursuing her bachelor degree at Nursing Science Program of Universitas Indonesia Faculty of Medicine. She continued to pursue Master degree in Health Nursing at the Faculty of Health Science and Medicine School of Nursing, RMIT Melbourne (2001). Then in 2012, she completed her doctorate degree in the same major from the Faculty of Health of Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane (2012).
“It’s good. I feel very lucky to be a mental nurse. From what I have learned in college, I know how to cope with my own emotions when experiencing mental stresses. I educated my children the same way. So it’s not only good for me, but also for my family and my community,” expressed the Doctor, who once worked as Nurse Consultant at Cimahi Mental Institution from 2006 to 2008.
“In Psychiatric Nursing Science, we learn how to help mental patients to be independent. A mental nurse views and deals with a mental patient in holistic manner. The patient is given treatments based on biological, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects.
“A mental nurse should concern about whether a patient is able to live his or her daily life again, whether he or she can take care of him/herself, perform religious prayer, socialize, and whether he or she is able to work. So, all aspects of the patient’s life, his or her quality of life, should be our concern,” she explained.
In the future, Dr. Suryani is planning to open a stress management centre (a relaxation centre). People who are suffering from mental stress are welcomed visit the place for relaxation. In there, they can get therapy and counseling to help relieve the stress. This is implemented to reduce the number of people with mental disorders in Indonesia.
