MENTAL HEALTH

Legal changes aim to help homeless help themselves

Chularat Saengpassa

Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

People living on streets should no longer be invisible to public: Human Security Ministry

BANGKOK: -- Nonexistent, an eyesore or a social problem? No matter how the homeless are labelled, under a new law they have become people society has to pay attention to.

"Police have to extend support to authorities in assisting the homeless. And if any of them is mentally ill, we must find a way to take them in for treatment," Ngamjit Taesuwa, chief of Mitrmaitree Home, a shelter under the supervision of the Social Development and Human Security Ministry, said yesterday.

Under revisions to the 2008 Mental Health Act, authorities are tasked with helping homeless people secure the means to stand on their own two feet.

Sittipon Chuprajong, who works for a non-governmental organisation, defines homeless patients as street people with mental disorders.

"We have managed to reach out to seven or eight homeless patients already. We have visited them to build confidence and trust. We have chatted with them. We have helped them with bathing and nail clipping. If they fall sick, we provide basic care," he said.

His project is planning to send one of its patients to a psychiatric hospital soon.

"We will let a psychiatrist determine whether he should stay at the hospital or a welfare centre," he said.

Ngamjit said people in general could help out a lot.

"Residents of communities must notice people living on the streets. So if they agree to help, there's a possibility that those homeless will get needed treatment and then perhaps can go back to a normal life," she said.

While some of those roaming the streets already show symptoms of mental problems, they can still talk coherently.

"If they receive timely treatment, they will still be able to return to work and communicate quite well with others," she said.

Some homeless and mentally ill people become rather aggressive when approached. That's because they feel they need to defend themselves.

"When I first started working for the cause of the homeless and tried to get close to them, they hurled stones and bottles at me," said Adchara Saravari of the Issrachon Foundation.

At first she did not understand their reactions but did not give up.

"Finally I found that street people acted that way because they were scared of me. They were simply trying to protect themselves," she said.

Today she is a friend of the street people in the Sanam Luang area. The homeless are "people who live in a public space", covering the mentally disturbed, sex workers, vagrants and children.

Some of the mentally ill women on the street are raped, get pregnant and give birth.

"They need help," she said.

Her network would arrange a seminar before the end of this month to boost public understanding of the homeless and how to extend help to the needy.

"If you find any homeless, please call 1300 and then officials will work on the case," she said.

Sittipon said people need to change their attitudes towards the mentally ill.

"Don't see them as a threat. Please see them as patients," he said.

He hopes his project would be able to persuade people to join its activities in the future.

"They can contribute by just capturing the homeless patients on their cameras and alerting us," he said.

Dr Wachira Pengchan, director-general of the Mental Health Department, said his department was ready to take in the homeless who need treatment for their mental symptoms.

"If they recover, they will be able to return to their homes," he said.

-- The Nation 2013-01-28

Tent camp offers temporary refuge

Chularat Saengpassa

Ponghon Sarnsamak

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- After having no place to call home for decades, street people now have a safe place to stay temporarily thanks to a tent camp set up along the Chao Phraya River under Phra Pinklao Bridge.

"We found that homeless people do not want a home. They just want to be accepted by society. Some of them even have got a job and earn money from public spaces," Natee Saravari, secretary-general of the Issarachon Foundation, said yesterday.

The foundation and the Social Development and Human Security Ministry launched the project a year ago not to promote the homeless to stay permanently on the street or in public spaces but to re-arrange accommodations for them and encourage them to support themselves.

About 300 people have lived around Sanam Luang - an open field for public activities - for a long time and about 200 people are staying at this public ground for only awhile.

The ministry estimates about 30,000 people living in public spaces nationwide with 2,561 of them in Bangkok. Most of them are poor people residing in the big city, sex workers, alcohol addicts, patients and ex-convicts. Some homeless people delivered a baby out in the open near Khlong Lod Canal.

After providing temporary shelters for 20 families around Sanam Luang for a year, about five people could return home and land a job.

"We are proving not only tents but also vocational training for them so that they can look for work and earn an income to improve their lives. Finally, they could move out from the public space and find a permanent place to plant their roots," he said.

Providing tents for the homeless for short use has been implemented in several countries like the US, Japan and Australia, he added.

Ngarmjit Taesuwan, head of ministry's Mit Mai Tri Home, said the success of this pilot project would be presented at the national seminar on social development at the end of this month. This project would be used a model to address the homeless problem nationwide.

"We have to accept their identity instead of forcing them out of public spaces because in the end they will come back again," she said.

However, this model would not work for every homeless person. Some of them need a tent but others need only a cart to sell vegetables.

-- The Nation 2013-01-28

Buying them a tent or a food cart won't help there mental conditions, alcoholism or drug addiction but hey they look as if they are helping.

Edited January 28, 201313 yr by Scully

What about the poor women with kids that line the streets of Sukhumvit under the watchful eye of their organised crime bosses. I guess they wont be moving anythime soon as long as there is money to be made for the BiB.

Under revisions to the 2008 Mental Health Act, authorities are tasked with helping homeless people secure the means to stand on their own two feet.

Some don't have any.....

Better to give to the homeless than the proffessional, organized beggars who expect it...oops!!! I mean monks

they have become people society has to pay attention to

Become a social country and care your poors too by having a social service to feed in bahts the poor ones, but it's not for tomorrow !

Edited January 28, 201313 yr by Westaurel

they can all become monks, problem solved and their belly will be full every day