PHCC focuses attention on mental healthcare
The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has emphasised the need to further mental healthcare for all members of society to raise awareness on the importance and impact of mental health on different aspects of an individual’s life as well as to maintain psychological balance by getting help if one’s mental health is at risk.
Within its awareness message on the occasion of the World Mental Health Day, the PHCC underlined the importance of mental health and how it reflects on an individual’s physical health.
International studies have shown a significant increase in rates of psychological disorders during the period of closure that the world witnessed in light of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Psychologist at PHCC’s Rawdat Al Khail Health Centre, Dr Tagreed Taha, stressed the necessity of positive interaction between the individual and society. Taha emphasised on the importance of the four aspects of interaction, including the individual’s ability to maintain physical health and safety through the physical aspect, while possessing self-knowledge about own thoughts, personality’s strengths and weaknesses, and ability to express oneself, overcome negative thinking, and achieve constructive decisionmaking through the psychological aspect.
Explaining that the social aspect deals with the individual’s ability to adapt to the external social environment and members of society, as well as maintain balance and harmony between one’s relationship with self and others, she said an important factor was the spiritual aspect, which involves the individual’s religious beliefs, and spiritual practices, in addition to charity, fasting and maintaining human goodness.
She pointed out the important role of the PHCC, noting that the corporation receives patients from many age groups (18 and above), who struggle with mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and psychological stress and burnout. Theses individuals see a psychological specialist as someone who can diagnose them and help them find ways to overcome challenges through talk therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, meditation sessions and other methods of therapy, Taha said.
She also highlighted the psychological problems that most children and adolescents deal with — especially at school — including depression, eating disorders, bullying, ADHD and other psychological disorders.
The World Mental Health Day is celebrated annually on October 10 to remind the world of this topic’s significance, destroy the stigma around it, and spread awareness and support for mental health issues.