WEEKEND VIEW: WHEEL POWER
ONE of the disability
groups that must surely suffer most in our society are persons with mental
illness.
They are frequently laughed at
and misunderstood. They also experience neglect and abuse. Many of the public even
fear them.
All of these are completely
unwarranted if people care enough to do some homework to discover what mental
illness is all about.
Despite this, however, persons
with mental illness sadly remain largely unreached as far as services and
treatment are available for them in the country.
But the good news is at least
one group in the Klang Valley which I only came to know about recently is trying
hard to make a positive difference for such people.
It is called Malaysian Society
of Hope for Youth or Persatuan Harapan Pemuda Malaysia (PHPM).
Although it was only formed last
year, PHPM has a history which
dates back to the early 1990’s
when its present committee members were involved in running a counselling
centre for families and youths with emotional problems.
PHPM runs a day care centre in
Klang for the emotionally disturbed.
There is a fulltime facilitator
and counselling is by psychiatrists and psychologists as well as trained and registered
counsellors.
The centre offers personal as
well as group sessions.
PHPM uses psycho-social
rehabilitative techniques like creative therapy using art, song and other ways
to help emotionally disturbed adolescents and adults to develop as much of their
potential as they can.
A major objective of the Society
is to help the public recognise and understand the effects of emotional
illnesses in sufferers as well as on their families and caregivers.
Rather than being ignorant, PHPM
believes awareness of such issues is one of the best ways to tackle and reach
out to people with mental illness in our society.
In a public awareness seminar on
adolescence problems organised by PHPM earlier this month a number of issues on
mental illness were addressed by some of the top experts on the disease as well
persons working for their cause.
These covered counselling for
the abused to addiction, boy/girl relationships and anger management.
Dr M P Deva who was professor of
psychiatry in University of Malaya for almost 30 years and a world renowned
figure in his field explained about the very difficult and sensitive period for
a person between childhood and adulthood and their families.
He pointed out in particular how
tough it was for parents to cope with their children’s burning desires and
testing ways as they adjust to their psychological, social, physical and
hormonal changes that bring the adolescent into conflict with society today.
Dr Deva offered several
approaches to managing these problems.
Another speaker was Mr Anderson
Selvasegaram.
An executive director of an NGO
called “SUKA” that works on juvenile justice, human trafficking and children
living in unfortunate circumstances, Anderson zeroed in on the lay persons’
role in recognizing and combating abuse.
He also pointed out on real
incidents where perpetrators of sexual abuse like the father sadly get away
with the crime because of various and current “bugs” in procedures that need to
be got rid of.
One of the most enthusiastically
attended sessions by both the old and young was on anger management.
The presenter Dr Jenny P Deva,
who holds a MA in counselling psychology and serves as president of PHPM, took
her audience through an exciting ice-breaker session that showed the uniqueness
of each person before delving into what goes through the mind and heart of
youths of today with emotional problems.
Role-play was employed to
encourage discussion on a few of the problems causing anger in relationships.
Participants got to enjoy analysing
and understanding each other so that they could appreciate how different human
beings all are in our preferences.
This helped them to better able
to deal with conflicts especially in relationships arising from these
differences.
The two-day rather hectic
seminar was held in an open tent and in different rooms at the centre as
participants also fought with the hot weather.
Despite that, everyone remained enthusiastic
and all felt that they had understood mental illness – as well as what most
people go through with daily stress and difficulties – a little better after
the event.
Singing session and talent
performances were also part of the programme.
“PHPM hopes that our work with psycho-rehabilitation
will continue to grow in the community as we strive to reach out to more young
people and others with mental needs,” said Dr Jenny to Wheel Power.
PHPM can be contacted by the
following means:
Telephone: +603-3373 1009
Email: hope4youth.2012@gmail.com
Address: No. 9, Jalan Dato Amar, KLANG 41100, Selangor.
THE END
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The group said the NHS was guilty of injustice in its treatment of people with mental illness