Deputy health minister Aaron Ago Dagang said counselling hotlines had received 210,930 calls since March 2020 when the first movement control order began.

He said these hotlines had received about 44,061 calls last year since March, but the number has already hit 166,869 calls this year.

Eighty-two per cent of the calls came from those in need of emotional support or counselling.

Aaron said 956 or 0.4% of the calls had been referred to psychiatrists for intervention measures since March.

The calls were made through various agencies and NGOs, including the psychosocial support line set up by Mercy Malaysia.

“A lot of calls were carried out through tele-counselling,” he said during today’s ministerial question-and-answer session.

He was replying to Wan Hassan Ramli (PN-Dungun) who asked about the effectiveness of psychosocial support lines set up during the pandemic.

Aaron said the government had also appointed one psychiatrist to every district to better handle mental health issues.

He also said the proposal to decriminalise suicide attempts was being studied by the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

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