Eye Witness Account of the Under Funded Mental Services Available to the Underserved People of Cambodia and Viet Nam

Manohar V

doi:10.4172/2469-9837.1000142

Abstract

I would like to bring to the attention of the MUR and our colleagues in the APA as a whole the urgent needs of the people of Cambodia and Viet Nam. A group of about 40 toured VN and Cambodia. This delegation under the leadership of Dr. Pedro Ruiz, MD was organized by the People to People Ambassador Program. We had notable APA members in our delegation among them: Dr. Nada Stotland and Dr. Carol Nadelson. We wear able to meet and exchange our observations and discuss our mutual interests with members of the staff and administrators of key institutions, NGO's and MH professionals in the community in both Nations. We left on March 24th and returned on April 3 to LAX. At the very first meeting with the Psychiatrists from the mental health Center of Ho Chi Minh City and of the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital we realized with trepidation that there more psychiatrists in our one bus than there were in all of Cambodia or Viet Nam.

Highlights

A decade or two interested observers will no doubt recall to life the tribute paid by Sir Winston Churchill in the house of Commons after the heroic victory of the British Air Force over the much vaunted Luftwaffe “ Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to few.” In a sense the dedicated NGO’s, volunteers and staff of various government agencies engaged in a nation wide effort to help their fellow country men and women while they are themselves trying hold their body and soul together while surviving their own sojourn in hell and enduring their own pain while trying to ease the pain of their patients and clients as the case may be are waging a war of survival against the machinations of Pol Pot and his allies
I would like to bring to the attention of the MUR and our colleagues in the APA as a whole the urgent needs of the people of Cambodia and Viet Nam
With Gods grace Loung Ung escaped but that number indicated the Pol Pot Regime was just getting their genocidal machine in high gear because 1.2 million more were murdered after that picture was taken

Summary

Introduction

A decade or two interested observers will no doubt recall to life the tribute paid by Sir Winston Churchill in the house of Commons after the heroic victory of the British Air Force over the much vaunted Luftwaffe “ Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to few.” In a sense the dedicated NGO’s, volunteers and staff of various government agencies engaged in a nation wide effort to help their fellow country men and women while they are themselves trying hold their body and soul together while surviving their own sojourn in hell and enduring their own pain while trying to ease the pain of their patients and clients as the case may be are waging a war of survival against the machinations of Pol Pot and his allies.

Results

Conclusion