One in five children suffer from mental health problems

One in five children between the ages of five and 16 in the country suffers from a mental health problem, said Johor State Health director Datuk Dr Mohd Khairi Yakub.

He said it was detected via the National Health and Morbidity Survey by the Ministry of Health between 1996 to 2011, to measure the prevalence of mental health problems or psychiatric morbidity.

"In 1996, the mental health problems among these children and teenagers is at 13 percent, and in 2006 it has increased to 19.4 percent.

"Five years later, it continued to increase to 20 percent," he said when launching the national-level World Mental Health Day at Permai Hospital here today.

Dr Mohd Khairi said ideas of commiting suicides were also high which is at 1.7 percent, while the suicide plans and attempts are at 0.9 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.

Hence, he said, the mental health problems needed to be addressed wisely by adopting the Healthy Mind Skills which enables patients to calm down, control their anger and possessing skills to resolve conflicts and capable of making rational decisions.

Dr Mohd Khairi also launched the Johor State Health Department's new service, Dr.jobmap e-service to provide information on new job opportunities for patients and hospital staff in Johor Baharu areas.

Dr.Jobmap e-service, which is using the modified Google Map, is handled by Permai Hospital's Innovation Occupational Therapy Unit.