KUCHING: The state needs to tackle mental health urgently as the illness has reached an alarming level among the people.
Dr Lau Kim Kah, director of the state mental health institute Sentosa Hospital, revealed yesterday that about four per cent of the state’s population suffered from depression.
“The state is going through rapid urbanisation, where social structure also changes significantly. There is a possibility that actual incidents of depressions are also on the rise,” he told reporters when met at Sentosa Hospital here during its open day and charity sales event.
He added that the second survey of the National Health and Morbidity study in 2006 showed that the symptoms of depression were detected in more than 10 per cent of the country’s population at any one time.
Another alarming discovery of the survey was that more young people are affected by depression.
“These symptoms used to affect mostly those in their 40’s but the age trend is getting younger due to increase stress of living.”
Also present were state Health deputy director (Medical) Dr Chin Zin Hing who officiated at the event, Kuching resident Abdul Rahman Sebli Senusi and programme chairperson Catherine Baun Dudong.
Another worrying trend was those suffering depression had less support from extended families, friends and the community as a whole, Dr Lau said.
“Family support is very important. In addition to providing better healthcare services, we
need to promote healthy living, change the attitude of the community to self help rather
than depending on the health sector.”
On the positive side, he said more people were becoming aware of mental health and sought help to tackle the issue while medical practitioners were also able to detect the problems earlier to provide consultation.
Dr Chin, in his speech earlier, said the 2011 National Health and Morbidity study revealed that a total of 340,000 of the country’s population (1.8 per cent) were facing depression while the prevalence for anxiety was recorded at 1.7 per cent.
The survey also found out that 2.3per cent of women in the country suffered from depression compared to 1.4 per cent among men.
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) study predicted that depression will become the second most common disease after Ischemic Heart Disease by 2020. In the global stage, mental disturbance and behaviour could affect 15 per cent of the world’s population by 2020.
“These studies had shown the need for a strong and strategic efforts to prevent or control mental health and mental disturbance problems. Among the factors that we need to look at are the excessive influence of internet and other latest communication technologies which lessened interaction time among youths and children.
“The busy working hours of parents also contributed to the lack of social support to their children,” he pointed out.