“Haiya, you gila, is it? I send you to Sentosa lahh!!!”
“Aiyerrr… someone going mad eh.. Send you to 7½ mile lah!”
Have you ever encountered such words, especially when you were a kid? When kids would fight, cry or get mad, and call out the words ‘7½ Mile’ or ‘Sentosa’. I’m sure most people of my generation from Kuching can relate.
To those who are unfamiliar with those words or never experienced such ‘moments’, I congratulate you—you are fortunate.
So, what do ‘7½ Mile’ or ‘Sentosa’ imply? They are nicknames of Sentosa Hospital (SH), formerly known as ‘Sarawak Mental Hospital’. It is a government hospital in Kuching that treats mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and psychological inertia.
It saddens me that even in this modern era, people still perceive this place as an asylum—such as those portrayed in movies and television—that houses lunatics and psychopath who are potentially harmful to society. If you have watched movies like Joker or television shows like American Horror Story: Asylum, you will know what I mean about the impression people may have of SH.
Such mindset and stigma often cause patients—who may have gotten better or otherwise - to be fearful about their situation being known, even to family members. They are afraid of being judged or perceived as crazy, dangerous, a disappointment or most importantly, an embarrassment.
I was sent to the emergency ward in Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) under instructions of a general practitioner in Klinik Kesihatan Petra Jaya. I literally begged the psychiatrist to place me in SGH because the thought of being admitted to SH was horrifying. I felt ashamed about having a patient record at SH. The thought of people talking about me filled my mind. “Stay away from her, she’s from a mental hospital” was constantly on replay. However, due to the limited beds at SGH—half of the psychiatric ward had been converted to cater for Covid-19 cases—I had to be placed in SH.
I was kept in the isolation room of SH because new or short-term in-patients were kept separated from their current residents to curb the spread of Covid-19. I only met two other patients who came in at around the same time. I did, however, exchange waves and smiles with other residents through the window.
When I was on my way to SH, I kept imagining asylum scenes I had seen in movies—fighting, screaming and shouting. I was nervous. After almost a week without communication with anything outside the hospital—not even my immediate family—I must say it was not as scary as I had feared. The truth is, although SH may be old and overdue for an upgrade, it was PEACEFUL. To my surprise, I heard and experienced nothing traumatizing at all.
What I did hear on a daily basis, was the singing of a male resident, coming from the in-patient ward which is a distance away. Yes, it was THAT loud. The nurses in the isolation room were pretty good singers too. It felt as though I was at a campsite where friends would sing around the campfire.
The staffs were really really really nice. I wrote ‘really’ three times because they truly were and they were patient. However, you may feel annoyed having to repeat yourself over and over again to the doctors but trust me, they mean well. They need to understand your situation as best as they can. Mental illness varies among everyone. Each patient has their own situations and conditions. Take for example, a voice in your head—whether it is heard in your mind or through your ears or whether it is your own voice or someone else’s can lead to different conclusions. So, you can imagine how long the mind map is for each patient.
I never entered the in-patient ward. Hearing about it from the nurses and pharmacist, it sounded like a pretty nice place to be. Efforts are made to make patients feel at home. This is why, if you have noticed, throughout this article I have addressed them as ‘residents’ instead of ‘patients’; they were like a family in a longhouse. They did daily chores together; helping to distribute food, disposing garbage and cleaning the compound (which allowed me to get waves and smiles from my isolation room window).
I also found out that there are residents who may never leave the hospital even if they are well. Why? It pains me to say this—they have nowhere else to go. Many of them are disowned. This is the problem with the stigma on mental health patients. This is the reason I wrote this article. This is the reason this article is titled Will you not be afraid of me? Do you see how this stigma can affect another person’s life? On the other hand, I also want to illustrate how nice SH is. They do not chase you away once you are well. If you have no place to go, they will let you stay, even until you depart this life.
Thank you for having read my article to this point. I ask you, please do not ostracize people who suffer from mental illness or have been treated for them. Please do not avoid them, belittle them or humiliate them. Instead, encourage them. Tell them they are brave, because they are. It takes a lot of courage to seek help.
To all of you who are receiving or have received mental treatments, you are BRAVE. You deserve a standing ovation for your courage. You are created for a reason, do not give up! You deserve to shine as brightly as the most expensive diamond one can find.
To YOU, should you feel that your mental health is not in good shape—especially if you actually have thoughts to HARM yourself—please get help! You can see a private psychiatrist first, the same way you might visit a private clinic when you are sick. If your situation is severe and requires more elaborate treatments which you cannot afford or are not insured for, please visit any government clinic and take it from there. The point is, seeking professional help is among the BEST things you can do for yourself.
Lastly, remember that mental health facilities—such as Sentosa Hospital—are nothing to be afraid of. Having mental illness is normal. It is treatable. You can get better. Just stay strong.
These are the places in Kuching where psychiatric help is provided by the government:
1. Hospital Sentosa Kuching (With referral only)
2. Hospital Umum Sarawak (Emergency)
3. Psychiatric Clinic, Hospital Umum Sarawak
4. Klinik Kesihatan Petra Jaya
5. Any Klinik Kesihatan in Kuching (The general practitioner will refer the patient to
psychiatrists at Hospital Sentosa or Hospital Umum Sarawak)
(Source: Mental Health Association of Sarawak)
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