KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Health (MOH) is focusing on conducting comprehensive engagement sessions with stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to raise public awareness regarding mental health among children and adolescents.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni said this is because there is still stigma from parents who cannot accept that their child is identified as having mental health issues.
“During counselling, teachers find that some children, especially in primary schools, have mental health issues and societal stigma, as well as parents’ inability to accept sending their children for screening and treatment at health facilities,“ he said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said this in response to a question from Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PH-Bandar Tun Razak) regarding the effectiveness of measures through the National Security Policy 2021-2025 for a report that recorded 424,000 children, aged five to nine years, in Malaysia had been confirmed to have mental health issues.
Through information and experience-sharing sessions, Lukanisman said Malaysia has good mental health programmes and modules that are praised by foreign countries, but the process to strengthen understanding among the community regarding this matter is still lacking.
Therefore, he suggested that Members of Parliament organise programmes to enhance understanding of mental health in their respective constituencies.
At the same time, Lukanisman said that the MOH also aims to establish 30 child and adolescent psychiatry specialists by 2027, and so far the country has 18 such specialists serving in MOH hospitals.
