Dr Chua Sook Ning
Elections are around the corner, and all cards are on the table. Politicians on both sides are slinging mud, trying to undercut the other.
Promises have been made to increase minimum wage, create new jobs, give cash handouts, ease loans and reintroduce fuel subsidies among other things.
Just several years ago, the government released a report saying that 30% of Malaysians had a mental health issue.
In 2015, the very same year this report was released, 193 countries including Malaysia adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development set forth by the United Nations Development programme.
For the first time, countries agreed to promote mental health and well-being, strengthen prevention and treatment programmes for substance abuse, reduce mortality from non-communicable disease (including behavioural, developmental and neurological disorders) through prevention and treatment programmes. These goals are to be achieved by 2030.
Will any party take the bold step of promising to address the urgent mental health crisis in Malaysia? Cash handouts, jobs and fuel subsidies will not alleviate distress of the 250 Malaysians who try to take their lives every day.
It may provide temporary relief to the three million Malaysians with poor mental health issues, but we need an explicit commitment from the government, in line with what Malaysia has already agreed to achieve, by signing UNDP’s Sustainable Development Goals.
There needs to be a significant increase in the budget for prevention and treatment programmes from the current 30% health budget allocation.
We have 12 years to achieve the UNDP goals. Do you have a 12-step plan to make our mental health great again? Or will we continue to see an increase in mental health issues year after year?
Dr Chua Sook Ning is from Relate Mental Health Malaysia.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.