Saturday, May 31, 2008
Mental Health Services in BiH
In answer to one of Owen's comments, to be honest, I am not well informed on mental health services here in BiH or in Croatia. I do know that for serious cases of mental illness, there are hospitals, which probably have decent enough help but which do not have adequate anything...How it is all paid for, I don't know, I am assuming it is part of the state-run system.
I know from personal experience that often mental patients in very serious condition are cared for at home by relatives. This was true of a friend of mine here, she was caring for a mentally ill daughter at home until it became too much for her.
Given that most Bosnians suffered terribly in the war, and that the suffering of the civilian population may have been worse than that of the military people, it's amazing more incidents like the one near Tuzla don't happen more regularly.
There is a terribly high level of domestic violence too, and only the beginning of a shelter system for domestic violence victims. What I have heard from my friends here is that domestic violence was not common here before the war.
I consider domestic violence the root of all other crime and social distress. I really would like to see stiffer punishment for it, and tougher efforts to educate people as to why it is wrong.
Yesterday's paper said that Mr. Petrovic had served with both the Bosnian army, on the Bosnian side, early in the war, and a bit later, with the Croatian regular army. Organizations for veterans with post-war stress in both Croatia and BiH said he was never a member of their organization, but that doesn't mean he doesn't suffer from post-war stress.
Compounding the whole problem of post-war stress, which is a common problem here, veteran's pensions in both BiH and Croatia are very small, and the meds for people who suffer from post-war stress are not cheap. Food costs and every other cost is on the rise here. People who cannot actually earn a living are even more stressed, and frankly everyone is worried about the world economy, (especially the U.S. economy)
There is an effort here, on domestic violence, and family problems to get help to people, for example, the newspapers have the domestic violence and family advice hot-lines in the paper every day along with all other important phone numbers. Most people don't have phone books, a phone book costs for just the white pages 35KM and the whole deal is like 70KM that gets you yellow pages. If I vitally need a number, I often look it up online. Most people are listed. I am not sure if unlisted numbers exist here or not, or maybe they exist and are very expensive.
BiH has the highest cost for phone service in Europe.
The closest there is to unlisted is getting one of the pre-paid mobile phone plans.
The funerals of the people killed by Petrovic were yesterday, and part was shown on the news.
Anyway, a terrible situation, and people are justifiably upset over it. Just watching the first news of it would set of P.T.S.D. for a lot of people! They show things on the news here that are not shown on the news back in the States. Things like the absolute rivers of the victim's blood being hosed away from the road. That wasn't wonderful for MY mental health frankly! I feel worst for the kids of the victims and for Petrovic's kids for that matter. They will never be the same.
I know from personal experience that often mental patients in very serious condition are cared for at home by relatives. This was true of a friend of mine here, she was caring for a mentally ill daughter at home until it became too much for her.
Given that most Bosnians suffered terribly in the war, and that the suffering of the civilian population may have been worse than that of the military people, it's amazing more incidents like the one near Tuzla don't happen more regularly.
There is a terribly high level of domestic violence too, and only the beginning of a shelter system for domestic violence victims. What I have heard from my friends here is that domestic violence was not common here before the war.
I consider domestic violence the root of all other crime and social distress. I really would like to see stiffer punishment for it, and tougher efforts to educate people as to why it is wrong.
Yesterday's paper said that Mr. Petrovic had served with both the Bosnian army, on the Bosnian side, early in the war, and a bit later, with the Croatian regular army. Organizations for veterans with post-war stress in both Croatia and BiH said he was never a member of their organization, but that doesn't mean he doesn't suffer from post-war stress.
Compounding the whole problem of post-war stress, which is a common problem here, veteran's pensions in both BiH and Croatia are very small, and the meds for people who suffer from post-war stress are not cheap. Food costs and every other cost is on the rise here. People who cannot actually earn a living are even more stressed, and frankly everyone is worried about the world economy, (especially the U.S. economy)
There is an effort here, on domestic violence, and family problems to get help to people, for example, the newspapers have the domestic violence and family advice hot-lines in the paper every day along with all other important phone numbers. Most people don't have phone books, a phone book costs for just the white pages 35KM and the whole deal is like 70KM that gets you yellow pages. If I vitally need a number, I often look it up online. Most people are listed. I am not sure if unlisted numbers exist here or not, or maybe they exist and are very expensive.
BiH has the highest cost for phone service in Europe.
The closest there is to unlisted is getting one of the pre-paid mobile phone plans.
The funerals of the people killed by Petrovic were yesterday, and part was shown on the news.
Anyway, a terrible situation, and people are justifiably upset over it. Just watching the first news of it would set of P.T.S.D. for a lot of people! They show things on the news here that are not shown on the news back in the States. Things like the absolute rivers of the victim's blood being hosed away from the road. That wasn't wonderful for MY mental health frankly! I feel worst for the kids of the victims and for Petrovic's kids for that matter. They will never be the same.
# posted by Katja R. @ 11:43 PM 
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Thanks, it's good having your information and your view of the situation as well.
Mental health services are such a low priority in a prosperous society like the UK, so it must be particularly difficult to maintain decent services in a postwar society with all the burden of PTSD.
It's the issue of PTSD that makes me hesitant to go all the way with what you say about domestic violence. Of course PTSD doesn't make domestic violence any more excusable, but stiffer punishment or education isn't necessarily going to help. The PTSD itself needs to be dealt with.
People who have endured the sort of horrors we know took place must are likely to have suffered grave damage. We understand the suffering of war victims in the same way we understand with the suffering of abused children. Once victim status ceases to be readily recognisable we start to assume that people should take responsibility for the effects of the damage done to them.
Mental health services are such a low priority in a prosperous society like the UK, so it must be particularly difficult to maintain decent services in a postwar society with all the burden of PTSD.
It's the issue of PTSD that makes me hesitant to go all the way with what you say about domestic violence. Of course PTSD doesn't make domestic violence any more excusable, but stiffer punishment or education isn't necessarily going to help. The PTSD itself needs to be dealt with.
People who have endured the sort of horrors we know took place must are likely to have suffered grave damage. We understand the suffering of war victims in the same way we understand with the suffering of abused children. Once victim status ceases to be readily recognisable we start to assume that people should take responsibility for the effects of the damage done to them.
# posted by 
: 2:20 PM
: 2:20 PM
My take is that there are people who suffered the same awful events, who have PTSD who have NOT killed six people in like under half an hour.
If someone genuinely suffers PTSD, they do not need pity or sympathy, they need help and the sad part is the worst cases will not seek out help. Unfortunately one has to sometimes be persistent in getting help even for something physical.
When people do harm to their families, terrorize their children and their spouses, it is not good, it is not good that any society tolerates it, or ignores it, because it hurts the fundamental bond in society, the family and a lack of justice there can lead people to view justice and society with less respect.
I am for getting help to PTSD victims for sure, even the ones who harm their families, but I am not for leaving them loose to do it again, even after a first offense. Even if it is in the scale of things a smaller offense, getting away with it just feeds the cycle.
Ed over at Balkan Baby raised some interesting points about why PTSD sufferers in particular may end up not getting the help, some of it is many of them were in fact heros in the war, and how do you lock up a hero? It feels like ingratitude.
There has to be a way to approach the problem at an early stage.
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If someone genuinely suffers PTSD, they do not need pity or sympathy, they need help and the sad part is the worst cases will not seek out help. Unfortunately one has to sometimes be persistent in getting help even for something physical.
When people do harm to their families, terrorize their children and their spouses, it is not good, it is not good that any society tolerates it, or ignores it, because it hurts the fundamental bond in society, the family and a lack of justice there can lead people to view justice and society with less respect.
I am for getting help to PTSD victims for sure, even the ones who harm their families, but I am not for leaving them loose to do it again, even after a first offense. Even if it is in the scale of things a smaller offense, getting away with it just feeds the cycle.
Ed over at Balkan Baby raised some interesting points about why PTSD sufferers in particular may end up not getting the help, some of it is many of them were in fact heros in the war, and how do you lock up a hero? It feels like ingratitude.
There has to be a way to approach the problem at an early stage.
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