KUALA LUMPUR: The government has been urged to set up more community mental health centres (CMHCs), as well as run more mental health promotion programmes to address the growing cases of mental disorder in the country.
To this end, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said there was a need for the government to provide more funding to the health ministry in the coming 2015 Budget.
Such centres, he said, should be established in every state to provide help to those with mental disorder.
“The setting up of CMHCs is a good approach to help in dealing with stigmatisation, creating awareness on mental health and empowering the service users and their families,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Lee noted that psychiatric disorders and other forms of mental illness were tragic reminders of another side of life which must not be overlooked in Malaysia’s quest to become a fully industrialised nation. — Bernama