PPS demands govt to prioritise mental health
Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Psychiatric Society (PPS) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter has urged the federal and provincial governments to pay utmost attention to mental healthcare as the growing number of psychiatric and psychological disorders would lead to a huge disaster, if the situation would not be controlled in time.
Dr Imran Khan, the Provincial President PPS along with Dr Muhammad Irfan and Dr Aziz Muhammad, while addressing a press conference regarding the World Mental Health Day at Peshawar Press Club here on Friday said that due to poor attention to the situation of mental health the number of suicide attempts was increasing, a huge number of people was suffering from anxiety and depression and more than 10 million people were doing drug abuse in the country.
They stated that the current situation was very alarming and that’s why the government should originate a firm and sustainable policy to address the aforementioned issues as per the ground realities and facts and figures, adding that health budget, especially mental health budget should be increased to a reasonable level as without enough investment in mental health, it was impossible to overcome the mental illnesses.
The representatives of PPS demanded the government to include psychiatry in Sehat Sahulat Program in order to treat the poor psychiatric patients without any financial problem, saying that the health department and the concerned authorities should work on making the psychiatry profession attractive for new medical graduates, while there was also a dire need for stopping the brain drain of Pakistani doctors.
Related Posts
Comments