KUCHING: With more people suffering from mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, the State needs more psychiatrists. Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development, Dato Sri Hajah Fatimah Abdullah disclosed that in the whole of Sarawak there are only 19 psychiatrists serving in the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) and other major hospitals.
“In 2018, one will be placed at Limbang Hospital but this is not enough,” she said while officiating at the closing of ‘Wacana Bestari’, a forum on mental health at Penview Hotel Kuching here yesterday.
To make up for the shortage of psychiatrists, Fatimah suggested that the State needs to have more counsellors to assist. Meanwhile, she said the State Women and Family Department is training individuals to assist in operating helplines, to be launched this month. The Wacana Bestari programme (forum), she promised, would not be the last.
“More such forums will be organised to create awareness as well as to take measures in assisting those who need assistance,” Fatimah explained.
The forum was jointly organi s ed by the Sarawak Soc ial Development Council in the Ministry of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development, Sentosa Hospital Kuching and Kuching Resident Office.
