Mental health must not be taken lightly as illnesses such as depression affect large swathes of the population, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said today.
Dr Wan Azizah was referring to the Health Ministry’s 2017 survey that found 18,336 of the 273,203 individuals who visited health and community clinics to be at varying stages of depression.
“Of these, 11,811 people were found to suffer from mild depression, 3,680 suffer from moderate depression and 1,682 suffer from severe depression,” she said in a speech at a mental health-focused convention for Muslim women at the KDU college campus here.
Dr Wan Azizah, who is also the women, family and community development minister, highlighted the growing mental health problem with the World Health Organization’s record of over 800,000 reported suicide cases worldwide each year.
The one-day “Breaking Barriers” convention was organised by the Mercy Mission Malaysia.
Read the full article: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2018/07/28/with-18000-depression-cases-in-2017-dpm-says-mental-health-a-pressing-matte/1657026