TODAY’S PAPER EDITION: HEADLINE: Psychotherapist hired

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PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry (MoH) has hired 200 counsellors on a contract basis to provide services for mental health, substance abuse and violence injury prevention, said its Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He was commenting on an exclusive report in theSun on July 12, which quoted Mental Health Aid Organisation co-founder Jernell Tan as saying that as of 2018, there were only 410 psychiatrists in the country, with an average national psychiatrist to population ratio of 1.27:100,000.

The figure is significantly lower than the World Health Organisation recommended ratio of one psychiatrist per 10,000 population, while Malaysian Medics International said as of February, the total number of psychiatrists had increased to 492, which was still 1.46 times lower than the 2025 target and 1.93 times below the 2030 requirement.

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Noor Hisham said the move to hire the counsellors was in response to the shortage of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and counsellors to address the nation’s mental health issues.

“These contract counsellors have been stationed at 138 district health offices to provide scheduled services at 831 health clinics nationwide,” he said when speaking to theSun from Mecca, where he is performing the haj, and responding to queries on the shortage of mental health specialists in Malaysia.

Noor Hisham added that in efforts to further strengthen mental health services, MoH has increased the Federal Training Prize sponsored slots for the Master of Medicine Expertise training programme in the field of psychiatry from 46 in 2015 to more than 60 in 2021.

The move includes reappointing, on a contract basis, a retired physician to serve with the ministry.

Currently, there are a total of 459 psychiatrists throughout the country, with 256 working in MoH facilities and another 203 in the Defence and Higher Education Ministries and the private sector.

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Noor Hisham also said of the government’s total RM70 million budget to address mental health issues, RM40 million had been allocated to MoH and RM30 million went to the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry.

“The total amount to MoH was distributed based on mental health services in hospitals and for primary care, including treatment and medication, implementation of mental health programmes in schools, digitalisation to strengthen mental health surveillance, strengthening counselling services in primary care and allocations to non-governmental organisations (NGO),” he said.

For NGO to apply for funding, they will need to submit a proposal on their planned activities regarding mental health advocacy pertaining to the community.

The proposal will then go through a technical evaluation committee before being submitted to higher authorities at the ministry for approval.

 E   lly Fazaniza