A man tightly shackled to his cell and his body sprawled out on the dirty floor is common practice here. Other patients at Yayasan Al-Fajar Berseri mental asylum in Indonesia lie naked on dirty floors, eat barely enough to function and are subjected to gruelling illegal 'therapy'.
Harrowing photography from Edi Ismail reveals the true details of what life is like for those locked up in Indonesian mental asylum.
Ismail was let in to the asylum where some 18,800 people are involuntarily sent to live in terrible conditions.
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Image credit: Edi Ismail/Barcroft Images
Those with distressed minds are sent here for 'rehabilitation'. I use that term loosely because it's not clear to me how these living conditions could help anyone to recover after being diagnosed as mentally ill. Instead, I can only imagine my mind deteriorating if I were forced to relocate here.
People are discarded at the asylum and they are often from low-status families with minimal education about helping those who are mentally ill. Some have been sent to the asylum by the authorities after proving that they are unable to adjust into society's 'norm'.
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The majority have been let down by the persistently underfunded healthcare system. With last year's ministry of health's budget taking up just 1.5 percent of government expenditure, it looks as if significant change won't happen anytime soon.
Ignorance also plays its part in the problem. There is a common belief in Indonesia that mental health conditions are the result of possession by evil spirits or the devil. In many peoples' culture, they believe that those who are ill have sinned, shown immoral behaviour, or a lack of faith - who hasn't?
Image credit: Edi Ismail/Barcroft Images
Arduous electric shock therapy is part of patients' 'treatment'. Some who stay here may even face sexual abuse and violence during their experience - all of which will further damage minds.
Patients are cramped into cells with dozens of others, reports the Daily Mail. Small meals of rice and vegetables served from plastic bowls make up patients' diets. Many eat and drink what little they are given through yellow, rotten teeth.
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Image credit: Edi Ismail/Barcroft Images
Many are chained up in a treatment known as Pasung. Although it has been outlawed for 40 years, mentally ill patients are forced to urinate, shit, eat and sleep in a radius of no more than one to two metres. This is supposed to help cure these poor people.
Video image credit: YouTube/HumanRightsWatch
Other 'treatments' revolve around herbal remedies, vigorous head massages and baths, although these are probably not like you and I are used to.
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Image credit: Edi Ismail/Barcroft Images
Green mould grows from the decaying walls and tiles. The tiles provide minimal shelter for the exhausted patients who are locked in with rusty chains and shackles.
Image credit: Edi Ismail/Barcroft Images
Something clearly needs to be done in this situation of atrocious treatment of humans.
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Featured image credit: Image credit: Edi Ismail/Barcroft Images
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