TPO is available for comment on:
Any of our Community Mental Health Projects listed on this website
- TPO’s Community Mental Health work and approach
- The Need for Mental Health Services in Cambodia
- TPO Cambodia’s role in raising awareness of mental health and reducing stigma
- TPO Cambodia’s work providing psychological support to Civil Parties at the ECCC
- The ongoing psychological impact of decades of civil war and the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia
- Baksbat (Broken Courage)
- Trauma Treatment for Survivors of the Khmer Rouge
- Testimonial Therapy and Testimonial Ceremonies
- ‘Blue Cloth’ method
- How TPO helps survivors of gender-based violence and sexual assault as well as alcoholics and builds capacity in Cambodian communities to both prevent and deal with these issues.
- How TPO helps build and strengthen the local mental health system in the delivery of mental health services
- Mental Health care provided by TPO Cambodia to Cambodian prisoners
- Transcultural Psychiatry (in the Cambodian context)
- Forensic Psychiatry (in the Cambodian context)
- Mental Health First Aid Program & Training
- TPO’s Treatment Center – services, patronage, results
- TPO’s Training Center, its role and courses offer
- Any of our current fundraising campaigns
- Any of our research projects and results
- Any of our publications
- Any of our public events or activities
Topics we do not cover:
For updates on Mental Health Policy in Cambodia, please contact the Ministry of Health and/or the Department for Mental Health and Substance Abuse in Phnom Penh.
We do not specialize in any other topics including gambling, eating disorders, illegal drugs-dependency, motivations of perpetrators of violence and other crimes (KR-related or not), the language used by the Khmer Rouge or the psychology behind the KR policies.
Important Notes
TPO Cambodia is first and foremost a Mental Health provider and Treatment Center. Almost all of our staff are psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses and project staff who work full-time, either in the field, mostly in remote rural locations, or as medical practitioners in our Phnom Penh Treatment Center, treating patients. This means that it can be difficult for us to accommodate media requests at short notice or put you in touch on-the-spot with any of our staff. This said, we very appreciate the media’s interest in our work and in mental health in Cambodia and are more than happy to make time for you to the extent our work allows. You can help us by giving us as much notice as possible and by being as specific about the topic, purpose and deadline of the interview. This will help us to find the next available staff member who can speak with authority on the subject and who can be available for this. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
If you are after general information about the state of mental health and mental health care in Cambodia, we recommend that you read three recent key reports about mental health in Cambodia before contacting us so that any subsequent interview can be focused on specific aspects of mental health in Cambodia and TPO’s work and projects. Excellent general information on and background with regards to mental health in Cambodia can be found in
- Leitner Cambodia Report 2012 – Special Report on Mental Health and Human Rights in Cambodia by the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School, New York City, USA. A look at mental health in Cambodia as a critical public health and human rights issue.
- Cambodia’s Hidden Scars – Trauma Psychology in the Wake of the Khmer Rouge. An edited volume on Cambodia’s Mental Health published by the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), 2011.
- Cambodian Mental Health Survey 2012 (RUPP) – the first large-scale investigation of mental health in Cambodia by the Department of Psychology of the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
Please also note that we adhere to a strict medical ethical code, which dictates, among other things, that we keep patient information private and confidential. Therefore, it is impossible for the media to sit in on any consultation, counseling or treatment sessions with clients. However, we also have many public awareness raising, psycho-education and community dialogue activities and testimonial ceremonies that the media is most welcome to attend. We suggest you follow us on social media to find out what’s on when. And please do contact us for more details if required.
Finally, if you do not work in the media, please contact TPO Cambodia via the contacts provided here.