One in five children suffers from mental health problem

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 per cent, and in 2006 it has increased to 19.4 per cent.

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

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