Mental health issues are a growing concern for the Ministry of Health (MOH) as mental health support needs in the first four months of this year eclipsed those required for the entire 2020.
Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said that in 2020, some 65,021 interventions in the form of psycho-social first aid were conducted by healthcare workers.
In contrast, from January to April 2021, 274,897 psycho-social first aid interventions were administered, he said in a briefing through Facebook Live today.
“Some of the factors (for mental health problems) are financial crisis, lack of employment, stress at work, family issues like relationship problems, divorce, lacking parenting skills, violence at home, substance abuse, and other environmental factors,” he said.
He said these factors also make up more than 90 percent of reasons for the 101,150 calls made to helplines up to May 21 this year, he said.
The helplines are operated by the Health Ministry, Mercy Malaysia, the Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry, and the Islamic Development Department (Jakim).
Some callers also cited lack of access to government aid during the various movement control orders and stigma due to Covid-19 infection as factors for mental health issues faced, Adham said.
To meet the increasing need for mental health support, the government is allocating funds for an additional 200 psychologists and counselors, whose contracts will continue until 2022, he said.
The government is also allocating funds to support community organisations working in the field of mental health, in hopes of empowering the greater society to support and advocate for those in need.
These include local religious leaders, who will play a role in advocating for mental health, as part of the National Strategic Plan for Mental Health 2020-2025, he said.
Other ministries, including the Youth and Sports as well as the Women, Family, and Community Development Ministries will also be on board to empower society to take preventive measures to protect their mental health, he said.
Private hospitals in Klang Valley add more Covid-19 beds
Meanwhile, Adham expressed gratitude to private hospitals for supporting the MOH in shouldering the burden of treating Covid-19 patients.
He said Klang Valley private hospitals, Gleneagles, Prince Court, and Pantai have increased the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds treating Covid-19 patients from 17 to 44, while the total number of beds for Covid-19 patients there have gone up from 196 to 251.
“This is following a recurring issue in Hospital Sungai Buloh where patients have sought to be transferred to private hospitals for further treatment,” he said.
However, he did not touch on the cost of Covid-19 treatment at private hospitals, which are mostly not covered by private health insurance.
To date, 110 private hospitals nationwide have agreed to treat Covid-19 patients, allocating 1,173 normal beds and 119 ICU beds for patients up to Category Five.
Adham also thanked teaching hospitals Hospital Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) and Hospital Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) for taking in some non-Covid patients from public hospitals to free up public hospitals for Covid-19 care.
Earlier, Malaysiakini reported that arrangements were being made to convert Hospital UiTM into a Covid-19 hospital, possibly by next month.
Hospital UiTM is located just 1km from the country’s largest Covid-19 hospital, Hospital Sungai Buloh. - Mkini
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