When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Sources

Jakarta’s Sick Lack Palliative Care, One NGO Offers Relief

At the Rachel House center in Jakarta
At the Rachel House center in Jakarta
Nicole Curby

JAKARTA — Yanti, 93, lives in a tiny room along with three other family members in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. She's unable to move or get up so she lies on a bed that dominates the cramped space. The air is thick with the stench of stale urine.

Yanti tells me she can't pass a bowel movement. She says she's constantly urinating. She lies on a layer of opened diapers. She grabs the flesh on my arm, which suddenly feels more chubby and elastic than ever before in her bony hand covered in thin, papery skin.

Palliative care is practically unheard of in Indonesia. Those living with chronic and terminal diseases have little access to pain management and support that could help make their lives more comfortable.

Yanti's neighbor Ibu Deti is a firecracker brimming with energy and jokes. She brings a gust of fresh air into the tiny room. Deti chats and shares stories with Yanti and her family. Yanti likes to remember the past. Yanti "will share stories, laugh and joke. But in the end she would always say, ‘why haven't I died yet?"," Deti recounts. Deti is part of a team of more than 900 community volunteers spread throughout Jakarta who've been trained in the basics of palliative care by Rachel House, a local NGO.

"Volunteers have been trained in how to respond to those kind of questions, how to comfort the patient when they have those kind of worries," says Prita Rifianti, program manger of Rachel House. "If the patient is sad or angry, the volunteer knows how to respond to that in a way that is hopefully relieving for the patient."

Deti and other volunteers do home visits to check on the basic needs of the patient and his or her family. They make sure the patient is being turned over regularly to prevent bed sores and has access to nappies, wheelchairs and anything else that can make the patient's life more comfortable.

But Indonesians still largely lack access to pain management.

"One of the biggest challenges being patients with chronic or serious illnesses tend to have a lot of pain, physical pain, that tends to go unrecognized or untreated by our current healthcare system," says Rifianti. "Sometimes the patient and the family think, well if you're sick of course you have pain, if you're sick of course you're going to be uncomfortable. Or there are people who might think this is a test or a punishment from God, so this is something I have to live with."

Yanti says her whole body hurts. Even though she was struggling, she wasn't taking anything to ease the pain. Painkillers aren't easily accessible in Indonesia, even for those who need them the most.

Rifianti says that the World Health Organization recommends oral morphine tablets, a cheap and effective painkiller, but a lot of healthcare professionals aren't familiar with the pill and don't know how to administer it.

"There's a certain fear among healthcare professionals and also the community that oh, these are addictive drugs and it might cause addiction, it might cause death, and therefore all of that combined cause it to be very difficult to access painkillers," she says.

Journalist Nicole Curby at the Rachel House care center in Jakarta — Photo: Nicole Curby/KBR

Painkillers have the stigma of narcotics – a stigma that is prevalent throughout Indonesia.

Rachel House trains volunteers in pain management. "When you see a patient you want to treat not just the illness, not just a body, but the patient as a whole human being, and you want to treat not just a body but all the emotional and social and spiritual needs of the patient," says Rifianti.

After visiting Yanti, Deti consults Rachel House's medical team and arranges for a doctor to make a home visit and prescribe pain relief medication to Yanti.

Rifianti says community volunteers like Deti who live in the same neighborhood as their patients are a vital link in the chain.

"There is this potential in the community, these volunteers who know their neighbors, who know their community, who know where to get healthcare and all of that," she says. "They become another set of eyes and hands on the ground, where they can identify patients that are hidden in the community."

Deti says that she feels proud when she can make patients happy. "We can help people through other means besides money. We can give them attention, energy, love. I think we all need that."

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Geopolitics

Putin In The Middle East, A Chilling Reminder Of The Power He Still Holds

Defying an ICC arrest warrant, Russian President Vladimir Putin is on a one-day foray to UAE and Saudi Arabia to display his role in shaping the geopolitical and energy landscape — and to make the world forget about the Ukraine war just a little bit more.

screenshot of Vladimir Putin and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Vladimir Putin met with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

TASS/Screenshot
Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — There are several remarkable aspects to Vladimir Putin's trip to the Middle East: firstly, the fact that it is taking place at all. The Russian president has been facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant since March: since then, he has only traveled to countries that are safe for him, such as former Soviet Republics and China.

This is his first foray outside his own world: he's showing to Russians back home that he's not a global outcast.

His destinations are also interesting: the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, in a whirlwind one-day trip. He arrived in the Emirates in the middle of COP28, making sure to go after the Western leaders that had left. French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris were there last week, making the choreography perfect for Putin — and for the UAE, which has positioned itself as a hub for circumventing international sanctions.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest