‘Stress level among school students high’

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PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry’s pilot project ‘Healthy Mind Programme Dealing with Stress Among School Children’ shows the stress level among students is high.

Its minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said out of 6,540 students screened, 17.1 per cent suffered severe anxiety symptoms, 5.2 per cent had depression problems while 4.8 per cent were stressed.

He said 2,345 of the students also had undergo the mental health intervention while 279 teachers were trained to identify and handle emotional, behavioral and mental problems among
students.

“The ministry is working how to help such students to cope with stress problems although there is no specific study done to identify the risk factors,” he told reporters after chairing the Mental Health Promotion Advisory Council meeting here yesterday.

Liow said that parents would be also called in for assistance if the students were identified having stress, anxiety and depression problems whereby  the cases would be referred to hospital for further treatment.

The project in collaboration with Education Ministry was started in March and was carried out at six schools nationwide, namely Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Datuk Haji Ahmad Badawi Pulau Pinang, SMK Simpang Bekoh Jasin Melaka, Sekolah Menengah (SM) Sains Teluk Intan Perak, SM St Michael Penampang Sabah, Maktab Rendah Sains Mara Gemencheh Negeri Sembilan and SM Jenis Kebangsaan Katholik Petaling Jaya Selangor.

Liow added that so far, 637 government clinics had implemented screening services to identify mental health problems while 138 doctors and 549 paramedics had received mental health training nationwide.
— Bernama