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Community Mental Health Care in Cambodia and Taiwan

In a remarkable and deeply impressive presentations given by Cambodian psychiatrist Doctor Sotheara Chhim ("Community Mental Health Service in Cambodia") and Mr. Yoshimasa Tebayashi, a Japanese Clinical Psychologist ("Six Years Experience of Mental Health Support Activities in Cambodia"), the following information was included:

During the Pol Pot period from 1975 to 1979 it is estimated that 1.7 million people were killed or died in captivity.

The two psychiatrists practicing in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975 were sent to do farm labour disappeared without trace. The only Mental Health Hospital, built in 1960's, was closed. Psychiatric patients were killed or sent to work in the fields.

Now in 2002 in Cambodia serving a population of about 12 million people there are approximately only 350 mental health care providers including 20 psychiatrists, 20 psychiatric nurses and 215 psychiatric clinical psychologists. Through the incredible efforts of people like these individual psychiatric practice and individual and group counseling programs have been established in Phnom Pen and some of the provinces of Cambodia.

For anyone interested in learning more and who are in a position to offer tangible support a good place to start is through the Japanese NGO, the SUMH Network:

Supporters Mental Health Website in Japanese


Taiwan:

Dr Chien is a Taiwanese psychiatrist who has been working within and a leading figure in the development of mental care system in Taiwan. In flawless Japanese he gave an insightful and highly informative presentation on both the way people suffering mental illness had been traditionally been regarded and the current mental health care provision in modern Taiwan, with particular regard to the development of mental health care training and services since the mid 1980's.

These presentations by Dr Chien, Dr Chhim and Mr. Takebayashi were jointly sponsored by the Japan Association of Psychiatric Clinics and the Tokyo Association of Psychiatric Clinics and were chaired by Dr Kubota, the President of the TAPC. Dr. Kubota, in his concluding statement, said that he is hoping to develop cooperation with other Asian countries and develop community care services such as psychiatric clinics rather than inpatient facilities.

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