Call for making mental health part of curriculum

Experts say there is a need to begin awareness campaign with help of media

RAWALPINDI:

There is a need to make mental health a part of educational curriculums and a budget should be allocated to address this issue on an urgent basis.

This was the crux of the views expressed by the speakers at a seminar held at Rawalpindi Medical University (RMC) to discuss the growing problem of declining mental health in the country.

Health experts including former Health Advisor Dr Zafar Mirza, Vice Chancellor of Rawalpindi Medical University Dr Muhammad Umar, Dr Farid Minhas, and Head of Institute of Psychiatry Dr Munir Ahmed spoke on the occasion. They emphasised the need to increase the number of mental health facilities and practitioners in the country.

Health experts said that in order to cater to the growing crisis of mental health, there is a dire need to begin an awareness campaign with the help of both traditional and social media. They said that tolerance regarding mental health issues needs to prevail in society. Labelling people with mental health problems as someone ‘crazy’ needs to stop, they added.

They said that mental health disorders are more prevalent in old age people due to factors such as financial problems, social behavior, mental stress, and inherent genetic diseases. Therefore, specialized treatment plans are required to specifically cater to such people.

They further said that concealing mental health issues is not a healthy practice. Currently, only the privileged in the country could access treatment for mental health problems, they added. They claimed that there were only 700 psychiatrists to cater to a population of 220 million in the country.

They said that Punjab being home to some 120 million people has only 20 mental health facilities.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2022.