Cambodia's first mental rehabilitation centre is set to open this month and will receive 60 patients from the Prey Speu detention centre. They will receive services free of charge, said Minister of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation Vong Soth.

He was speaking while inspecting the newly constructed centre in Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district on Wednesday.

“The mental rehabilitation centre has been built on more than 2ha and the building’s construction is nearly 100 percent complete."

“Pending the Ministry of Economy [and Finance] – which provided the budget – making a final construction evaluation, it will be open for operation within the month,” Soth said.

Chhuor Sopanha, the director of the Department of Social Wellbeing under the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, said: “The operation of the mental rehabilitation centre will have a clear arrangement of the types of patients – such as male, female and the seriously mentally ill.

“They will remain segregated and require officers and staff to be on standby 24 hours a day to supply care and provide services for them.”

Sopanha said the centre is not a place of detention but more of a communal house, with lodging and areas for treatment, dining, physical exercise, et cetera. Particularly, the patients will see their conditions improve as they are integrated into the community.

Ministry spokesman Touch Channy told The Post on Wednesday that next week, following the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s inspection, there will be in an inauguration ceremony before patients are admitted.

“It won’t be long . . . Operations are set to begin no later than June. It is all part of the plan that the minister put in place,” he said.

Channy would not reveal the total number of mentally ill in the Kingdom but he said that if the preliminary trial run with the 60 patients is successful, more from the provinces will be accepted.

“Acceptance of any patient for care will be free of charge. This is the government’s plan,” he said.

After the removal of the mentally ill from the Prey Speu detention centre, it will be turned into a shelter for the homeless.

“Prey Speu would become a shelter, because from now on Prey Speu centre will not be a place for the mentally ill to stay. Nowadays homeless people also stay there. So if we take out just the mentally ill, Prey Speu will still operate as usual, but to house the homeless,” he said.

Am Sam Ath, a senior investigator for rights group Licadho, said he is not aware of how the services will be provided at the establishment. However, it will serve the patients well if they are categorised and separated.

“The mentally ill require ‘adequate’ care. A simplified life, with food rations, caretakers and enough treatment – that’s what adequate is. If any of these are lacking, problems will arise for them,” he said.

Sam Ath notes that Cambodia currently does not have a suitable establishment to care for the mentally ill. He said the Prey Speu detention centre was not suitable for them and was the object of constant criticism.

He called for the new centre to have adequate facilities set up for the patients.