Standing With Bali Bersama Bisa: Our Partnership With Indonesia's Only Suicide Prevention Hotline

Indonesia has one of the lowest ratios of mental health professionals per capita in the world. For every 100,000 people, there is fewer than one psychiatrist and only a handful of psychologists. Public services are overwhelmed. Private care sits out of reach for most families. And the stigma around asking for help is often what keeps people quiet in the first place.

In 2020, a group of Bali-based community organisations came together to do something about it. A coalition of ten marginalised communities working under one roof to provide free, professional mental healthcare to anyone in Indonesia who needs it. They called it Bali Bersama Bisa. In English, that's roughly "Bali, together, we can."

Holistic Recovery Bali has stood alongside Bali Bersama Bisa from the beginning of the project, and their work has shaped how we think about our own role here in Bali. This piece is about what they do, why it matters, and how you can help.

What Bali Bersama Bisa actually does

Bali Bersama Bisa Mental Healthcare is a non-profit facility that treats more than a thousand people every month, for free. That's a real caseload carried by a real clinical team, not a marketing number.

The services offered include:

• The BISA Helpline — Indonesia's only nationwide suicide prevention hotline, offering 24/7 crisis support and online counselling

• Free clinical assessments

• Professional counselling from qualified therapists

• Consultations with psychologists

• Psychiatric consultations and medication where clinically indicated

• An outpatient programme

• Peer support groups

• A vocational programme helping people rebuild independence

• Food relief services for people in acute financial crisis

For anyone in Indonesia in crisis, the BISA Helpline is often the first door they can walk through. It's free, it runs around the clock, and for a lot of people it's the reason they're still here.

A coalition of ten communities

What makes Bali Bersama Bisa different from a standard mental health charity is who built it. It wasn't founded by a hospital or an international NGO. It was founded by ten local community organisations that had each been working with different marginalised groups for years, and who realised mental health was the common thread running through all of their work.

The ten organisations that make up the coalition include groups working with:

• People in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction (Movement of Recovery)

• Mental health education and community outreach (Yayasan Teman Baik Nusantara)

• People living with HIV and AIDS (Yayasan Spirit Paramacitta)

• Transgender women (Yayasan Gaya Dewata)

• The visually impaired community (Yayasan Telaga Teratai Indonesia)

• People living with bipolar disorder (Yayasan Pulih Bipolar Bali)

• People living with schizophrenia (KPSI Simpul Bali)

• Cancer survivors (Love and Strong Women)

• People with physical disabilities (Inkrebilitas)

• Food relief for people in crisis (Crisis Kitchen Bali)

Each of those groups had already been doing the hard, unglamorous work of showing up for people the wider system had forgotten. Bringing them all under one clinical facility was ambitious, and the fact that it works says a lot about the people who built it. You can read more about the individual organisations on the foundation's About page.

How Holistic Recovery Bali Has Been Part of the Story

Holistic Recovery Bali has been involved with the Bali Bersama Bisa (Together We Can) Foundation since its inception in 2020. When you provide private mental health and addiction treatment in a country where public mental health services are significantly under-resourced, it becomes difficult not to see supporting the wider community as part of your responsibility.

It is our way of giving back to the community that has so graciously welcomed us to live and work on the beautiful Island of the Gods, Bali.

Holistic Recovery Bali helps source, train, and sustain many of the programmes that Bali Bersama Bisa delivers. That support takes place across three interconnected areas.

Sourcing

Holistic Recovery Bali assists in identifying the clinical resources, skilled professionals, and referral pathways that Bali Bersama Bisa needs to continue expanding its capacity. Through our work with international clients and healthcare providers, we have access to networks, expertise, and infrastructure that many community-funded organisations would otherwise struggle to reach.

Training

Our clinicians share knowledge, clinical protocols, and evidence-informed best practice with the Bali Bersama Bisa team. Mental health and addiction treatment continue to evolve rapidly, and access to contemporary clinical education is not always readily available throughout Indonesia. Holistic Recovery Bali is privileged to help bridge that gap by providing ongoing education, mentorship, and professional development.

Sustaining

Long-term community programmes require long-term support. Through Holistic Recovery Bali's relationships with local businesses, private organisations, philanthropic partners, and international supporters, we help Bali Bersama Bisa access the funding opportunities, partnerships, and institutional support needed to keep its services free and sustainable. Providing care at no cost to those in need is only possible when the programme behind it is well resourced. Much of this work happens quietly behind the scenes but is fundamental to the charity's long-term success.

Our relationship is not a corporate sponsorship. It is a genuine partnership between two organisations working side by side within the same community. One organisation is funded through private treatment services provided to international clients, while the other relies on fundraising, grants, charitable partnerships, and donations to deliver free community-based mental health and addiction support. Although our funding models differ, our purpose is shared: to improve how mental health and addiction are understood, treated, and supported throughout Indonesia.

Why this matters

There's a version of international private healthcare that treats the host country as scenery. Beautiful location, low costs, no real engagement with the community the facility sits inside. HRB has been clear from the start that we didn't want to be that.

Bali has given us somewhere to operate. Bersama Bisa has given us a much clearer view of what mental healthcare in Bali actually needs. Our clinical team has learned from Bersama Bisa's frontline work with the most vulnerable people in the community, and Bersama Bisa has been able to use our clinical infrastructure and expertise wherever it's useful. The relationship runs both ways.

Neither organisation could do what the other does. HRB serves international clients paying for private residential treatment. Bersama Bisa serves the local community, free of charge, at scale. Both are needed, and both benefit when they work together.

How you can support Bali Bersama Bisa

If you have read this far, and this work moves you, here are the concrete ways to be involved:

Donate

Bali Bersama Bisa runs almost entirely on donations. A one-off gift keeps the helpline staffed, the medications stocked, and the clinical team on the ground. You can donate directly through their official donation page on Donorbox. Every contribution, no matter the size, is used directly for clinical services.

Get involved

If you are based in Bali or planning to spend time here, their Get Involved page lists opportunities to volunteer time, expertise, or professional skills. Clinical, administrative, and creative volunteers all have a role.

Spread the word

Follow Bali Bersama Bisa on Instagram and share their content. In a country where mental health stigma is one of the biggest barriers to treatment, visibility of the work being done is itself a public health intervention.

If you or someone you know needs help now

The BISA Helpline is available 24/7. You can reach them on WhatsApp at +62 811 385 5472 or by email at info@bisahelpline.org. There is no cost. Speaking to someone is the first step, and it is often the most important one.

A closing thought

There's a phrase in Bahasa that gets used a lot around Bersama Bisa. Bersama bisa. Together we can. It isn't a slogan, it's a description of how the organisation was built and how it still works. Ten communities, none of whom could have built this alone, doing it together anyway.

Holistic Recovery Bali is proud to have been alongside that work from the start, and we'll keep being alongside it for as long as it's needed. If you're already supporting them, thank you. If you're learning about this for the first time, we hope you'll consider getting involved.

If you or someone you care about needs help with addiction or a mental health crisis and you would like to talk to our team at Holistic Recovery Bali about programme options, you can reach us through the contact form at the bottom of this page or over WhatsApp on +62 811 388 04006. Reaching out is the hardest step, and it is also the most important one.