Poster 12

[P-12-05] Sociocultural Barriers in Schizophrenia Management, is Healthcare Policy Ready to Tackle the Issue?

*Lathifah Nudhar¹, Rizma Adlia Syakurah², Bintang Arroyantri Prananjaya¹, Puji Rizki Suryani¹, Syarifah Aini¹, Diyaz Syauki Ikhsan¹ (1.Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Sriwijaya University(Indonesia), 2.Faculty of Public Health, Sriwijaya University, Indonesia(Indonesia))

Keywords:

Schizophrenia,Sociocultural,Mental Health Policy

Background: Mental health in Indonesia is still an area with overwhelming challenges. Based on data from the 2023 Indonesian Health Survey, the national prevalence of schizophrenia is 4 per mil and most concentrated in rural areas. Problems in handling schizophrenia include gaps in the quality of health services, socio-cultural stigma and confinement. Objectives: This study aims to identify socio-cultural challenges and mental health policy readiness in handling mental health problems in one of the rural area in Indonesia. Methods: The research was conducted using a descriptive design and qualitative methods. Data collected through in-depth interviews and observations. Data were validated through triangulation. The data were analyzed using thematic methods. Results: The research revealed the families theme as the barrier in mental health delivery, specifically the cultural beliefs about the nature of the symptoms, negative and discriminative attitude towards the patient and lack of knowledge about the illness. Mental health policy themes emerged as a barrier included lack of professional or trained human resources, inadequate budget to provide antipsychotics, and lack of concern from local government. Although the program is running based on the paper, the practice still low in quality. Discussion: This study revealed that the treatment of schizophrenia is still closely related to beliefs about supernatural beings. This has been identified as a barrier for families to seek medical options and prefer treatment from supernatural experts such as shamans and religious leaders. Education have to be prioritised to change this stigma, but the mental health policy in Indonesia considered inadequate of doing so, the problems are some of the tasks for health institutions and the government that need to be improved in order to delivered high quality mental health services.