WE all saw the dark side of the pandemic, with suicide rates in Malaysia climbing nearly 150% during the first half of 2021. The past two years have shined a new and much-needed spotlight on the cruciality of improving the state of mental wellbeing and care in Malaysia from several perspectives including awareness, accessibility, affordability and quality of care.
That’s where Skybi comes into the picture.
Skybi is an online matching platform to connect people who require mental health services, including live chat, virtual seminar talk, E-mental health assessments and e-psychotherapy. Face-to-face mental health services are also available upon special request.
In order to use Skybi’s services, all you need to do is WhatsApp them at 011-1984 4028, ask them about the services, make the payment, and you’ll be able to get started on your mental wellness journey.
All their sessions are conducted through Zoom, which allows anyone to get help with an internet connection. Their Skybi Mental Health Community Service (SMHCS) is a programme offering mental health services at a minimal amount or discounted price to lower-income communities.
In Malaysia, the price for private therapists and counsellors can cost anywhere between RM200 to RM500 per session with one session typically lasting an hour.
Meanwhile, data from the Millennium Cohort Study in 2012 found children in the lowest income quintile to be 4.5 times more likely to experience severe mental health problems than those in the highest, suggesting that young people in poverty require more help in terms of mental health.
Poverty in adulthood is also linked to depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, psychological distress, and suicide, which is why affordable mental health help is so important.
With Skybi, students and people in B40 communities can now get help with just RM10.
To know more about your current mental health status, you can also take the free mental health assessment on their website, which is a Google Form DASS 21-item self-report instrument designed to measure depression, anxiety and tension/stress, making mental healthcare more accessible to some of the most at risk and impacted individuals.
On top of that, Skybi also conducts an array of free-to-join webinars for underserved communities, educating them on their mental health and destigmatising the concept of reaching out for mental health help by making it easy to WhatsApp them.
Despite the affordable pricing, Skybi holds up the quality of their service and can conduct counselling/psychotherapy sessions across a broad variety of scenarios and circumstances including individual therapy, marriage therapy, family therapy and corporate counselling amongst others.
By utilising a digital platform, Skybi is able to reach out to Malaysians across the country, organising and conducting sessions for clients even in the most remote locations in the comfort of their own homeswhich helps avoid the unfortunate stigma associated with seeking mental health help.
Kai Lin Ng, Skybi’s vice president of operation, mentioned that “Skybi has taken the initiative to not just roll out a temporary campaign to address this, but to make social outreach for mental health a core pillar of our organisation.”
If you are ever in need of support or counselling, Skybi can also be contacted by their email at enquiry@myskybi.com. To find out more about their services, visit myskybi.com.
