Spreading awareness: Mental Health Day activities on Oct 10

HYDRABAD: The World Mental Health Day will be observed across the country on October 10. The theme this year is motivating people to invest in mental health. Dr Darya Khan Laghari, a psychiatrist at the Sir Cowasji Jehangir Institute of Psychiatry, Hyderabad, said that over 450 million people across the globe have mental illnesses and around four per cent of them live in Pakistan. Over one million depressed people across the globe commit suicide every year. He said that people who seem chronically depressed should be tested for the mental illness. Different mental health institutions and organisations in Hyderabad plan to organise programmes on October 10 to spread awareness about mental illnesses.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2012.