Evaluating the Indonesia Free Movement: Understanding continuing use of restraint of the mentally ill in rural Java.

Forcible restraint and confinement of persons suffering from mental illness occurs throughout the world, including in Indonesia. Since 2010, when (GBP) or the () movement was launched, national policy has been published to eradicate in Indonesia by improving the mental healthcare system. This article analyses this policy, specifically the National Mental Health Legislation (2014) and the Ministry of Health Regulation (2017), and evaluates their current state of implementation through a local, in-depth case study. Using mental health institution mapping, two sets of semi-structured qualitative interviews with government officials and healthcare workers, and participant observation in a facility practicing , we identify the extent to which the 2017 regulation has been implemented in Winong village and discuss current efforts and persistent obstacles to eradicating . We suggest that despite reforms and the new treatment facility in our case study, the continuing use of is due to a combination of access to care issues and a widely held explanatory model of mental illness characterized by strong curative beliefs that, when disappointed, lead to a sense of threat and hopelessness.