The Malaysian Insight

MENTAL illness among children is a “mounting crisis”, with almost a fifth of Malaysian secondary school students suffering from depression, said a report released today.

The Status Report on Child Rights in Malaysia 2018 said 18.3% of teenagers aged 13 to 17 suffer from depression, anxiety (39.7%) and stress (9.6%).

It said 10% of adolescents have experienced suicidal ideation, 7.3% planned their suicide and 6.9% attempted to kill themselves.

Bullying is identified as an “increasingly prevalent threat” to child and adolescent mental health, with 16.2% of children saying they have been bullied.

Women’s Aid Organisation capacity-building coordinator Melissa Mohd Akhir, who unveiled the report to the media, said Malaysia’s children still have difficulty accessing mental health services.

The problems include long waiting times in the public healthcare system, high costs of private treatment and the limited availability of mental health specialists.

Melissa said in 2016, the country’s psychiatrist-to-population ratio stood at 1.1:100,000.

“This is even worse in rural areas, as mental health experts are concentrated in urban areas.”

The ratio is below the World Health Organisation benchmark, she said.

Available expertise is usually limited to adult patients, as there are only 20 child psychiatrists nationwide, said the report’s segment on healthcare.

“Efforts to develop child and adolescent mental health services face challenges in terms of a lack of trained workers, limited training resources and inadequate facilities.”

It is the third progress report on Malaysian children, and was prepared by Child Rights Coalition Malaysia, comprising various civil society groups.

Malaysia, as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, is obliged to submit status reports on its children to the international body every five years.

The country’s last report was submitted in 2006.

Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh, who attended the report’s launch today, acknowledged the government’s failure to submit reports regularly.

She added that the Pakatan Harapan administration has stepped up efforts to resume submissions to the UN. – December 20, 2019.