Historically speaking how has Thailand and Thai people viewed mental illness?
It used to be viewed that if a person had mental illness then he/she was weak, and was their own problem and their own fault. As a result people very rarely talked about it and instead kept it bottled up? that of course makes the problem worse.

What about in contemporary Thailand?
Nowadays the majority of middle and high classes are much more accepting of mental illness. They understand it?s a disease that can affect anybody and is often passed on through hereditary means.

Whereas many working class Thais think it is something spiritual. They misinterpret the symptoms and believe they are spiritual mediums. Their family perpetuate the myth by instead of suggesting they visit a doctor, they suggest that they release ten fish or perform some other ritual as an act of penance.

Have these views been an obstacle in researching different forms of mental illness in Thailand? Does the government award an equal budget to the mental health department as other areas of health?
In 2000, the Thai government started taking mental illness much more seriously and recognised it as the important disease it is. Most provinces now have a psychiatric hospital. The nearest is in Surat Thani. Thai citizens are now covered for mental illness as well as any other illness under the universal health care coverage scheme (also known as the 30 baht scheme). This enables them to receive free consultation and treatment.

Police are slowly becoming more aware of mental illness and since 2008 asses a suspect for mental illness. According to Thai law, if a person commits a crime while it is believed he/she is suffering from a mental illness, then he will not be charged until he is deemed to have recovered.

So, although it has been found that he committed a crime while suffering from a mental illness, he/she will still be charged when they recover? Do you agree with that? Would you like to see any other changes to the law brought in?
Important that they are charged, if they commit an aggressive action, then they need to be punished for it. I would like to see a community care program introduced in Thailand, unfortunately there are many people who walk around Phuket who need mental health care and unfortunately because of the way mental illness is considered, they will not ask for help until it is perhaps too late.

In Bangkok Hospital, how many members of staff is there that currently work in the Mental Health Department? Would you say that the majority are foreigners or Thai nationals?
There are 3 full time psychiatrists, and 6 part time ones. Each day I have around 7-10 consultations with walk in patients, at any one time there are 2 ?live in? patients. There are 65% foreigners and 35 % Thai people. The main reason for this disproportionate number is that foreigners are typically more accepting of mental illness. Nationality and race play no factor in the difference of diseases, the symptoms are always the same.

How does Bangkok Hospital view the use of Electro Convulsive Therapy?
I have experience with ECT and believe it can be very useful, but we don?t use it in Bangkok Hospital and in fact few hospitals in Thailand as it is hard to convince people of its safety and effectiveness.