‘Stigma prevents people from seeking help for mental health conditions’
KUCHING: Stigma prevents people from seeking help for any mental health conditions they may have, and is still the biggest barrier in the nation’s goal to improve mental healthcare.
“Stigma even drives families to confine members with mental disorder to locked rooms without medical intervention of any form,” said Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.
Speaking at the 5th Sarawak Mental Health Conference here yesterday, she said that various preventive measures had been initiated, including World Mental Health Day.
“Mental health promotion activities can be undertaken in various settings, including schools, work places and public areas; and with specific target groups like children and adolescents, women, working adults and the elderly,” she said.
Mental disorders are a public health problem, and are everybody’s problem.
“We must not lose sight of mental health development in our aspiration to become a developed country,” Fatimah said, adding that for the next conference, community leaders would also be roped to make them more aware of the problems.
The two- day conference began yesterday and is themed ‘ Broadening the Horizons of Mental Health in the Community’.
According to organising chairperson Dr Rosliwati Md Yusoff, the conference covers various topics in mental health issues in the community.
“We hope that the workshops, plenaries and symposiums will benefit the participants,” she said.
Two hundred and forty- five delegates are attending the conference while 230 delegates attended the pre- conference workshop.
Delegates are made up of formal caregivers such as medical professionals, and informal caregivers such as families or relatives of people with mental disorders.
Teachers, counsellors, social workers, and members of the public and NGOs were also in attendance.
Mental Health Foundation consultant psychiatrist and executive director Dato Abdul Aziz Abdullah, 5th Sarawak Mental Health Conference advisor and Hospital Sentosa director and senior consultant psychiatrist Dr Ismail Drahman were also present.