A view of the interior of the Yangon Mental
Health Hospital.
According
to Professor Dr Tin Oo, the manager of the National Health Project and head of
the metal health department at the University of Medicine (1), said that an
average of 50 mentally ill patients are committed to the Yangon Mental Health
Hospital every year.
“Under
Myanmar’s laws, if a mentally ill person commits a crime, that crime will not
be considered a crime on the grounds that he or she was not capable of deciding
[to commit the crime]. Some psychological conditions are uncontrollable. It all
depends on the presiding judge, though. Some mentally ill patients are deemed
too dangerous to be let free and are sent to us for rehabilitation. We have a
separate ward for them. One such person will take around six years before his
condition is cured or lessened,” said Dr Tin Oo.
He also
said that among the annual patient intake of 1,300, most are alcoholics.
According to official records from a
government survey conducted on 5,000 people, between 75 and 85 per cent
regularly consumes hard liquor, while around 10 per cent consumes traditional
liquors and 15 per cent consumes beer.
Ttwin
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