KUCHING: One in five children in Malaysia have been diagnosed to be suffering from mental health problems.
Citing the National Health & Morbidity Survey (NHMS), Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) head of psychiatry and mental health Dr Selvasingam Ratnasingam said, “It is important to send children of those with mental health problems for early treatment to prevent them from committing suicide.
“It is worrying when schoolchildren in the country decided to take their own lives.
“One of the reasons people commit suicide is because they do not want to share their inner feelings or problems.”
Dr Selvasingam said this in his speech during the “Stop The Stigma Run” at the old State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Building here yesterday.
The child and adolescent psychiatrist said many people were unaware that children could have stress and depression and hence, it was of extreme importance to detect early if a child had mental health problems.
He said sending them early for psychiatric help would lower the risk of suicide.
Therefore, he said it was important to educate people not to be afraid of speaking out their problems.
“We need to break the stigma towards people with mental health problems.
“And that is why we hold this run. We want to get the message across that people can have all kinds of problems. And any problem will always have solutions, no matter how bad it is,” he stressed.
He added to have good mental health; one must also practise a healthy lifestyle and maintain good physical health.
