World Mental Health Day is being observed all over the world today (Tuesday) including Pakistan, which is dealing with mental health patients with less number of psychiatrists and lack of resources.

World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10th every year. It is a day dedicated to raising awareness about mental health issues and promoting mental well-being globally.

This year’s theme is ‘Mental health is a universal human right’ to improve knowledge, raise awareness, and drive actions that promote and protect everyone’s mental health as a universal human right.

The statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that 24 million people in Pakistan need psychiatric assistance. However, allocated resources for the screening and treatment of mental health disorders were not enough to meet the increasing needs.

In Pakistan, mental disorders account for more than 4% of the total disease burden and women tend to have more mental health issues than men, possibly due to the low literacy rate among women.

It further added that Pakistan has only 0.19 psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the lowest numbers in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, and in the whole world.

In a country where traditional values bar taking pieces of advice from psychiatrists, it is not surprising that the mental health of people is not on the radar.

Experts assert that we need to understand that mental health is most important for employees as well “psychological health of a person is as important as physical health.”

Depression can be a reason for a mental disorder that destroys the physical health of a person and drowns a patient into feelings of emptiness, loss of interest, change in weight, sleep disturbances, withdrawal from social interaction, thoughts of suicide, and so on.

Last April, the Pakistani government launched a mobile application and helpline to address the issues related to mental health to mark World Health Day.

The app called “Humraaz” offers psychotherapy, daily activity monitoring, connection with professionals, chatbots, WhatsApp support, and appointment booking.