Making mental health one of the government’s top priorities should be in every policymaker’s head. Unless we consider mental health a big issue, Pakistan will continue to see the trend of rising suicide rates, and every third person facing depression. Very few activities marked the World Mental Health Day on Thursday, which means it is not an important issue in our part of the world. It is time to understand that happy, healthy minds help societies make great strides in scientific innovations and wonders in arts and philosophy. Happy and healthy minds, however, can be cultivated with high standard of living, and most importantly by understanding the needs of mental health. Mental health has direct and indirect relations with socioeconomic issues, and that fact can be gauged from suicide data across the world where one person takes his/her life every 40 seconds. Pakistan is among those countries where suicide is on the rise, and most victims are women. A suicide does not happen in isolation; the direct contributing factors are joblessness, poverty, injustice, tough competition for marks in schools, disorder and so on. The day reminds us about the rising depression in society and our lack of will to take it as a disease and a factor responsible for many diseases and disorders. As per World Health Organisation estimates, every third person in the world is a victim of depression. The UK Royal College of Psychiatrists says typical symptoms of depression include feeling of being “unhappy most of the time … utterly tired … useless, inadequate and hopeless.” Medical research has proved that mental health problems can target people of all ages -tender age to old age – and most of the people live with those problems undiagnosed and untreated because of the lack of awareness of symptoms and treatments.
Mental health issues can be tackled with raising awareness about symptoms and by increasing the availability of neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and other experts. There is a dearth of facilities to treat mental health related issues as psychotherapy and counselling have yet to gain a wider level of acceptance in the country. The other vital thing is to improve socioeconomic indicators. A mentally stable society threads its way through a stable political situation, improved economic outlook, green environment, equal opportunities and peaceful living for all. Let us value the human mind.
