Mirror Foundation joins 4 state agencies to help mentally ill homeless people
Four state agencies and a private foundation have joined hands to deal with the rising number of mentally unstable homeless people.
The aim of the collaboration is to take them off the streets, provide them with treatment and eventually reintegrate them with their families.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on Monday between the Social Development and Welfare Department, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), the Mental Health Department, the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department and the privately run Mirror Foundation.
Under the MoU, all signatories will be able to link their databases of homeless people, hospital patients and those who have gone missing, which will help them track the families of the homeless.
He said some government agencies and NGOs have their own system of helping homeless people with mental issues, so they can be treated and returned to their families.
“If all agencies coordinate, their work will be more effective. We can seamlessly exchange information on patients and jointly design a monitoring system,” Sirisak said.
He noted that the Mental Health Act empowers the authorities to immediately provide treatment to people with severe mental issues who are deemed dangerous to others.
Sirisak said if general hospitals cannot take care of homeless people with mental issues, then they need to be sent to 20 mental institutes across the country.
Pisit Poolpipat, deputy director-general of the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department, said his department has two facilities that can house some 1,300 people with disabilities. He also noted that many mentally ill people on the streets had been thrown out by their own families.
Rising numbers
Suchada Muenkla, deputy director-general of the Social Development and Welfare Department, said the number of mentally unstable people on the streets was rising and state agencies needed help from the private sector. She said the facilities provided by the state are not enough to deal with the influx.
ThaiHealth manager Dr Pongthep Wongwacharapaibool said a network of NGOs helping the homeless has learned that many of the mentally unstable people on the streets suffered mental issues before they left their homes.
Pongthep said in 2016, about 10% of the homeless had mental issues, compared to 19% at present.
“The MoU will link the Mirror Foundation’s database, which has information of missing people with mental issues, with the information of homes and welfare centres for the disabled under the Social Development Human Security Ministry,” he added.
“This information will also be linked to the databases of hospitals of the Mental Health Department, so we can track down the patients’ families. This will allow us to send them back home after treatment.”
Sittipol Chuprajong, chief of the Mirror Foundation’s project focusing on caring for sick homeless people, said the MoU will ensure help is provided to the mentally ill on the streets, so they can eventually return home.
Dr Kwanpracha Chiangchaiyasakulthai, a ThaiHealth official in charge of mapping policies for the homeless, said the MoU will also allow the authorities to identify mentally unstable persons before they are thrown out by their families.
Kwanpracha said if families are not able to take care of mentally ill relatives, ThaiHealth will turn to the communities for help, so they do not stray out to live on the streets.
