SIBU: The Health Ministry should be given more funds in Budget 2015 for the setting up of more Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC) and for holding more mental health-related programmes.
Mental Health Promotion Advisory Council member Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said this was important to address growing mental disorder issues.
There had been an increase in the number of mental health disorder cases of late, he noted.
“While heart diseases, cancer, HIV-Aids, and so on take their toll annually in the form of death, the burden of diseases such as depression is rapidly becoming a major source of mental disorder not only for individuals and their families, but also on the community as a whole.
“In 2012, the Malaysian National Suicide Registry recorded 1.3 deaths by suicide for every 100,000 people.
“Although this suicide ratio is much lower compared to countries like Hong Kong, South Korea, or Japan, some academics and NGOs believe the actual figure was much higher due to under reporting for various
reasons, such as social stigma, religious concerns, and legal problems.
“According to the Health Ministry’s National Health and Morbidity survey 2011, 1.7 per cent of adults had suicidal tendencies, 0.9 per cent had planned to commit suicide, and 0.5 per cent had attempted suicide.”