Mental health issues must be managed head-on

KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 (Bernama) -- There are too many incidents involving suicide which is mainly caused by depression that needs to be duly managed.

A recent case was of the teenage girl in Sarawak plunging to her death from a shop lot after people voted for her to die in an Instagram poll.

This is why people need to manage any mental health issue at an early stage and see the problem as a priority before it becomes too late.

In regard to this, Subang Jaya Care Warriors (SJ Care Warriors), a mental wellness initiative, is helping people tackle the issue beforehand and with a simple message to all Malaysians, 'do not suffer in silence'.

SJ Care Warriors in a statement, here, today, said the programme was initiated by Subang Jaya assemblyman Michelle Ng Mei Sze and supported by a team of medical and non-medical volunteers.

"Too many incidences of suicide and people living with depression. We need to build resilience; a resilient community," said Ng in the statement. 

Ng also recalled visiting a family at a funeral of their child who took her life and what struck her most was when one of the parents said she only wished she knew what to do.

It was then that Ng realised that mental health, wellness and stress management were knowledge that could be learnt and used in the future whenever mental health issues crop up.

"This is not just a suicide prevention task force but also an initiative to empower youths to build resilience by maintaining a healthy mental state. The wisdom is to know that it is okay to be sad and what they can do when faced with adversity, stress and rejection without hurting themselves," she said.

SJ Care Warriors was launched on March 31 this year and is now gaining steam with its focus on empowering the community to self-help and help others.

Theirs is a two-prong approach, namely gatekeeper training on suicide prevention by a team of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, and a team of experts with psychology and counseling background whose role is to provide a bridge to tackle mental health issues.

SJ Care Warriors noted that in September 2018, the Malaysian Mental Health Association (MMHA) raised the red flag and highlighted that over the past year, there had been an increase of suicidal behaviour among adolescents in Malaysia and recent events in the region had renewed the global concern for mental health.

In fact, the cost of healthcare for mental illnesses, according to market research company Frost & Sullivan, is set to rise to a whopping US$6 trillion in 2030 annually from US$2.5 trillion in 2010.

"The global treatment gap in 2004 for disorders such as depression and anxiety was more than 50 per cent and more than half of these patients went untreated. The situation had not changed significantly in 2018.

"Currently, mental health issues are addressed mainly at hospitals and also at the primary care level. Complementary community-based mental health initiatives and advocacy need to be much more well-integrated into the mental health service ecosystem," said the statement.

For more information on the SJ Care Warriors programme, reach out to june.liang@frost.com.

-- BERNAMA