Materia Medica Malaysiana

Penang Hospital starts first patient-run cafe

PENANG: The Perak Road Psychiatric Ward of Penang Hospital has started a cafe run by its patients – the first of its kind in Malaysia.

Penang Hospital consultant psychiatrist and head of department Dr Lau Kim Kah said yesterday that current and former patients running the cafe had been given proper training by the hospital staff.

He added that the cafe, called Kafe Penyayang, was under the Circle of Care programme sponsored by Janssen-Cilag.

The programme conducted in collaboration with the Malaysian Psychiatric Association is organised at psychiatric departments in major hospitals.

“We have two helpers from the hospital guiding the patients to cook and serve customers.

“At any one time we have about four to five patients working in the cafe that is opened from 8am to 1pm,” he told reporters after the hospital’s director Dr Zaininah Mohd Zain launched the cafe yesterday.

Also present were Penang Mental Health Association president Datuk Mary Ritchie, and Janssen-Cilag product specialist Albert See and sales manager Ching Feei.

The cafe, formerly known as the hospital’s Psychiatric Welfare Canteen Body, was tendered to outsiders before the programme was introduced in May.

Dr Lau said patients who worked in the cafe were paid RM5 to RM6 daily, depending on their work functions.

“This cafe would help patients earn some income after they are discharged, when society does not give them a chance to secure a job outside.

“Therefore we want to help them as much as we can,” he said.

He added that by giving the patients a chance to work at the cafe, it also exposed them to a work environment and at the same time allowed them to sharpen their communication skills with others.

See said that under the Circle of Care programme, the Malaysian Psychiatric Association had received US$15,000 (RM57,000) from Janssen-Cilag to carry out national-level programmes.