P for Phyllis: I went to Tanjung Rambutan!

The A-Levels Psychology students - altogether 27 from the Jan/Mar ‘11 and Jan ’12 group - had the opportunity to visit Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta, located in Tanjung Rambutan. Hospital Bahagia is a hospital for the mentally unsound, and currently houses over two thousand patients with 54 male wards and 25 female wards.

We left Sunway College by bus at around 6.30am, with Ms. Ida and Mr. Lee (junior) as our accompanying teachers. After almost 3 hours on the road, we finally reached our destination.

Initially, we were scheduled to be at the meeting room for a talk, before going on a tour around the hospital but unfortunately, there were some technical problems so we went straight for the tour.

Ms. Suseela, one of the staffs working there, was our guide for the day. Firstly, she took us to the hospital’s museum. Inside, there were all sorts of antiques used in the hospital during the 1900s, ranging from food trays, utensils, to even an old dental chair.

The patients’ uniforms were displayed there too. According to Ms. Suseela, the dark green outfits were given to serious cases of schizophrenic patients for easy identification, while the mentally stable ones wore light green or white ones.

Other than housing the mentally ill, the hospital also provides psychiatric treatment which includes both physical and chemical treatment. “Drugs are the most common treatment, because it takes only 3 days to observe any changes for the better,” said Ms. Suseela.

Therefore, it is compulsory for psychiatrists to administer drugs to every patient. Patients treated with antipsychotics are also much less likely to relapse. Typical and atypical antipsychotics are both used during treatments; however atypical drugs such as clozapine seem to reduce symptoms where other neuroleptics had failed. (Aha! A2 Psychology knowledge ^^V)

Next, Ms. Suseela took us to the Occupational Therapy Unit, where mentally stable patients are taught basic living skills such as taking care of one’s personal hygiene, dressing and grooming. The patients were mingling around the room; some kept staring at us with distant eyes. In the spacious room, sewing machines were placed neatly in rows and at the far end, a patient was selling a few handmade key chains.

Inside the hospital’s 560 acre compound, there is no sign of patients roaming around freely. This is because each ward is fenced up and security is tight. Our next destination is the acute schizophrenic patients’ ward - we went to the old building instead as we have to obtain permission from the hospital’s director before visiting the new one.

According to Ms. Suseela, almost 99% of patients have poor insight, which means that they perceive themselves as being mentally healthy when they are not. The sad news is that, more than 75% of the patients stay in the hospital forever, either because they are not fully cured to be released out into society, or their families refuse to take the patients home even though some are already healthy enough.

After listening to the brief explanation of the person-in-charge, he took us into the ward’s compound to have a look. As we passed by the canteen, we noticed a patient most likely to have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), as he did not seem to cease washing his food tray and scrubbing his hands even after countless times.

We moved on to look at the cells, which are now abandoned. Botak Chin, one of the most notorious and dangerous gangsters during the 60’s and 70’s in Malaysia, was admitted in Hospital Bahagia for 19 days under careful observation, to determine if he was sane enough to stand trial. We had the opportunity to peep into Botak Chin’s high security hospital cell, which is actually similar to a prison cell.

These are houses for the patients who are mentally stable enough to live like a normal person, independently completing chores like cooking, washing clothes, tidying up the house etc.

Lunch time came and all of us bid our goodbyes to the staffs and even the patients. Ms. Suseela did a great job as our guide, and her help was hugely appreciated!

We decided to go down to Ipoh town for lunch. We were free to roam anywhere and scout for food based on our own peference. The majority - including me of course - went for the famous nga choi kai fan (chicken rice with bean sprouts) :D :D :D

This was my first time in Ipoh! :p The town is quite similar to Malacca and/or Penang, with rows and rows of quaint old shoplots.

I've never had the authentic Ipoh chicken rice before so I was surprised when the guy served one big plate containing of only bean sprouts! I thought the chicken was underneath but nahh, it was on another big plate as well :p I enjoyed the bean sprouts - they were fat and juicy, unlike the KL ones (I dislike them!). And the chicken tasted great too!

After our stomachs were satisfied with the delectable lunch, we headed to some shop - which I heard is famous in Ipoh for its delicacies.

We seemed to be happily crossing the road lol! (Pictures below are courtesy of Patricia)

I practically unleased my inner shopaholic-ness the moment I stepped into that shop. It was like, *turn to the right* *gasp* I want that! *turn to the left* OMG I want that too! LOL seriously. Wheeee ended up with one whole bag of candies and biscuits and snacks :D :D

Next, we crossed over to the other side to buy some salted chicken. I DIDN'T KNOW IPOH IS FAMOUS FOR IT'S SALTED CHICKEN SO I DIDN'T BUY IT AND I REGRETTED COZ I LOVE LOVE LOVE SALTED CHICKENNNNNN :(

Here we are outside the salted chicken shop. The red plastic bag that Diane is holding contains THE salted chickennnn.