KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry’s Mental Health Promotion Advisory Council welcomed the government’s move to introduce the Malaysia Psychological Wellbeing Index, which was proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi during the launch of the Human Capital Psychology Conference, yesterday.
Its member Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, in a statement, said it was time for the government to set forth an index for the evaluation of mental health development and psychosocial issues faced by Malaysians.
Based on the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2015 study, he said about 4.2 million Malaysians aged 16 years old and above (29.2 per cent) of the population suffered from various mental health issues.
“The number is alarming as it shows an increase of 11.2 per cent, compared to 2006. The problem involves students because the ratio of those suffering mental health problems have increased from 1:10 people in 2011 to 1:5 in 2016.
“Experts say that stress and depression are the major causes of mental health problems among the students. Other contributing factors includes family problems, physical and cyberbullying and study pressure by parents and teachers,” he said.
He said such psychological assessment can be carried out by the health ministry and the results can be used to plan and lay out sustainable programmes to tackle the mental health issues.
He proposed that employers at each organisation take into account the risks of stress and psychosocial aspects of employment, and implement plans to reduce psychosocial risk so that employees can play a role in creating a healthy work environment.
“This is important because employees spend one third of their day at the office and workplace issues are one of the main contributors of stress,” he said.