Saturday February 27, 2010
Vital to promote mental health
THERE was a report in The Star on Feb 23 about a depressed man who attempted suicide from the 11th floor of Wisma Jubli in Kota Kinabalu.
He was rescued by a fireman in the nick of time.
Problems of such nature are quite common these days due to severe depression many people have to endure.
When they fail to deal with such depression they obviously choose to end their life in tragic ways.
All this reveals the growing importance of promoting good mental health and dealing with mental illness or mental disorders.
According to the National Health and Morbidity survey in 2006, more people suffered from mental health problems.
It showed that 19.5% of the older age group, from 70 to 74 years, and 14.4% of the youngest, between 16 and 19 years, were also more prone to mental health problems than the rest of the age groups.
Mental illness was also more prevalent among women at 12.1% compared to men (10.4%).
Mental illness leads to the increasing suicide rate worldwide with one death every 40 seconds.
In Malaysia, the rate has increased to nine to 12 persons per 100,000 population compared to eight in the 1980s.
As Malaysia progresses towards developed status and with greater rural-urban migration and urbanisation, mental health disorders are bound to increase in the coming years.
It is thus important for Malaysians to be aware of mental health disorders within the community.
Mental health education and promotion to address the rise of psychosocial problems in our society is most essential in this new millennium and our aspiration to achieve developed status, will obviously exert tremendous pressure, which in turn leads to stressful predicaments.
Promoting mental health requires a joint effort between the Government and relevant NGOs as well as volunteers working in unison.
A comprehensive mental health programme is therefore needed to encourage the community to be better informed about such issues and how they can play an effective role in promoting mental health and helping the mentally ill.
TAN SRI LEE LAM THYE,
Kuala Lumpur.
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