MALAYSIA is facing a dearth of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists to treat mental illness patients due to the lack of a specialised workforce, said the Health Ministry’s Mental Health Unit.

While the ministry is taking steps to overcome the problem from its end, it has also reached out to insurance companies to provide coverage for mental illnesses.

This comes as the government is set to unveil a national action plan next month detailing its comprehensive strategy to tackle increasing mental health cases among Malaysians.

The plan will outline programmes and policies for the 2019-2025 period, and target common mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression and stress, Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad told the Dewan Rakyat recently.

“The public doesn’t realise that stress, depression and anxiety… can afflict anyone, and they can interfere with our ability to perform our daily tasks.

“Anyone who finds that they cannot perform their daily tasks for a period of 14 days is considered to be suffering a mental health illness.”

Currently, in Malaysia, there is one psychiatrist to treat every 100,000 persons, while the ratio for clinical psychologists stands at 0.2 per 100,000 individuals.

Sixty-one government hospitals and four mental institutions nationwide provide specialised psychiatric treatment, follow-up management and rehabilitative services. In addition, 1,001 integrated primary care clinics provide mental health screenings and follow-up services.

“Generally, there is a lack of a specialised workforce in mental health,” a Mental Health Unit spokesman told The Malaysian Insight.

The ministry, however, is not resting on its laurels concerning the problem.

It plans to increase government sponsorship slots for specialised training, such as psychiatric sub-specialty training and master’s training for clinical psychology.

It is also looking into developing parallel pathways for specialisation by encouraging more candidates to train for the Member of the Royal College of Psychiatry.

Expanding recognition of parallel pathways will encourage more doctors to pursue psychiatry, said the spokesman.

The ministry is also looking into the option of rehiring retired psychiatrists on a contract basis.

It will also encourage more Malaysian specialists serving abroad to return home.

At the same time, the ministry is holding discussions with the medical insurance fraternity in a bid to encourage more companies to cover mental illnesses.

“Currently, the ministry is holding dialogues with the medical insurance fraternity to see how we can bridge the gap,” said the spokesman.

“Most insurance companies do not recognise mental illness as a critical illness. This is mainly due to a lack of awareness since the risks are unknown, which affects the issue of affordability in the policy packaging.”

Despite the slow start, some progress has been made, with insurance firm AIA Malaysia including mental health in its coverage.

According to ministry statistics, 22,475 psychiatric patients were discharged from government and private healthcare facilities in 2017.

Based on the ministry’s 2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey, mental health issues among those over 16 affected 29.2% of the population, or roughly 4.2 million Malaysians. – August 3, 2019.