Bring Mental Health Care to Cambodians

During a field mission to Stung Treng Province, our team was informed about a woman suffering from a severe mental illness who was being locked up and left in a cottage. When we arrived, the ground below this shelter was scattered with plastic bottles, foam boxes, and plastic bags. When looking through the small hole of the door, a woman inside was sitting and talking alone.

She is 45 years old. Her mental health condition suffered in 1997 after she failed her high school exam, leading to intense distress and heartbreak. Soon after, she developed severe symptoms, including high fever, excessive thirst, delirium, extreme aggression, throwing human feces, less sleeping, and physically violence on her mother, hallucination with smell, bizarre talking and telling other that she was talking with former kings. Her insight was trouble, sometimes she didn’t know or mother or relatives. People believed that bad magic bad spirit of ghost made her sick.

Her family initially sought treatment at the provincial hospital and later a public national hospital in the capital. Her condition improved somewhat—she got some sleep—but she continued to have frequent, disturbing symptoms. She later stopped taking her medication, and her symptoms rapidly worsened. Around 2005, her relatives took her to a traditional healer. During getting treatment from healer, she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter.

Within half a month of the birth, her illness became severely disturbed. This created a profound burden for her mother and siblings, who were managing both a seriously ill adult and a small grandchild. By 2016, the patient was behaving aggressively, making loud noises, wielding knives and axes, destroying household items, and no sleeping. At night, she would walk around and rummage through things. Out of concern for the safety of others and the patient herself, and also due to shame and fear of stigma, her family decided to lock up her in the small cottage. Her family felt hopeless in recovery and let her condition go eventually.

When the TPO Cambodia team arrived, the patient's mother expressed emotionally sympathetic with her daughter caused by her condition. Her mother felt helpless and hopeless in recovery and just give food 3 times a day. The younger sister and other relatives felt pity and had tried their best to help, but without lasting success. TPO Cambodia team did psycho-education on the nature of the illness, its causes, and effective treatment.

After receiving the treatment from TPO Cambodia for four months, her signs and symptoms were better gradually and the family members could communicate and better insight. The family then decided to release her, and integrate her into the family. TPO Cambodia continues to follow up and encourage her to resume her normal daily life, including exercising, grooming herself, cooking, washing dishes, socializing, and doing light work.

The first day the patient truly recovered, she recalled: "The first day I have better insight, I felt resentment for my condition," and what she remembered was "I have a daughter." She expressed her hope: "I want to see my daughter get a good job, and I want to see my mother in good health." Today, her daughter is an adolescent and is pursuing her studies in the capital, supported by her grandmother and aunt.

The daughter expressed immense joy and relief at her mother's recovery: "Since I grew up, I have only seen my mother sick like this. I had always hoped to bring her to get treatment one day. Thankfully, TPO Cambodia provided treatment with free of charge at home. I am truly happy and excited. I am determined to take good care of her, and I have commitment and try my best to take care of mother. "The family extended their profound gratitude to TPO and all donors for helping to rescue their daughter's life, because it a rare opportunity to receive such effective treatment with free of charge.