THIS year’s World Mental Health Day (WMHD) with the theme “Mental Health is a Universal Human Right” reflected the need to bring mental health issues to the attention of the world and to mobilise support for mental health in general.

Celebrated on Oct 10, the annual WMHD represents the commitment and aspiration of the World Health Organization (WHO) in advocating good mental health – an agenda that is shared by Malaysia and many other countries globally.

Generally, the majority of mental health conditions peak in early adulthood. It has been noted that 75% of people who experience a mental health condition have had their first episode by the time they are 25 years old.

In 2021, WHO estimated that worldwide, one in seven, or 14% of, teenagers aged 10 to 19 suffered from mental health disorders, yet these problems are still mainly undiagnosed and therefore untreated.

As such, this early adolescent population with mental health issues contributed 13% of the global burden of disease and injury.

In Malaysia, there is a growing concern about suicidal cases among adolescents.

For instance, the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2019 recorded that around 424,000 children exhibited mental health symptoms, and 2.3% of Malaysians aged 18 and over, experienced depression.

The latest findings, the NHMS 2022, showed that one out of eight adolescents had suicidal thoughts and one in 10 had reported suicidal attempts.

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There has been an increasing trend among those having suicidal thoughts and those making suicidal attempts.In the NHMS 2012, it was found that 7.9% had suicidal thoughts and 6.8% had suicidal attempts. The percentages increased in the NHMS 2017 to 10% and 6.9% for the two categories, respectively.

In the aftermath of Covid-19, the NHMS 2022 reported that 13.1% had suicidal thoughts while 9.5% reported making a suicidal attempt.

As for gender, more girls than boys reported suicidal thoughts and attempts, with girls outnumbering boys by more than double.

A similar scenario was highlighted by the NHMS 2022 whereby 36.1% of, or twice as many, girls as compared to boys, felt depressed.

On the other hand, supplementary data from the NHMS 2022 showed that 41% of adolescents had been verbally abused and 7.5% had been physically abused at home. Again, the pattern found that abuse incidents were higher among females.

The NHMS data has prompted the relevant ministries, agencies and non-governmental organisations to work actively towards improving awareness through mental health education at all levels.

Efforts to intervene through more structured prevention, early detection and intervention, and effective treatment based on scientific empirical research, are timely given the mental health symptoms and behavioural indicators recorded.

It is hoped that the establishment of the National Centre of Excellence for Mental Health (NCEMH) by the Health Ministry will result in a more synergistic conceptualisation to improving mental health and well-being across more stakeholders.

Empirical research will spur innovation in mental health and enhance the global environment as a result. Numerous studies have been conducted on the risk and protective factors for mental health.

Given that these variables have been shown to interact in intricate ways, customised interventions that consider both the population being served, and a variety of other characteristics, are necessary.

The research communities, particularly universities, must come up with innovative approaches to create evidence-based intervention programmes for Malaysians while simultaneously striving to reduce stigma around mental health and enhance resources for everyone.The Health Ministry was among the ministries that got a sizeable allocation in Budget 2024, receiving RM41.2bil as opposed to RM36.3bil for this year. Through various new initiatives and health development projects, including the improvement of mental well-being, this RM4.9bil increase will be able to contribute to better quality of life for Malaysians.

A thorough strategy that takes into account the requirements and opinions of outside parties, like universities and the various industries, should be presented, as has been the case in the past.

Universities fulfil several societal roles as essential components of academic communities by offering practical answers to societal problems.

The recent launch of the UCSI Wellbeing Research Centre on WMHD is evidence of UCSI University’s commitment to promoting research and to developing capacity to improve mental health, public consultation, and advocacy.

Indeed, beneath the fundamental tenets of Malaysia Madani, a cooperative endeavour involving multiple stakeholders – the government, businesses, community, and media – led by the university with its research expertise and resources will bring the country together by offering a scholarly perspective on important and urgent problems like mental health and well-being.

Mansor Abu Talib is a professor of counseling at the UCSI University Faculty of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts. He is also the director of the varsity’s Wellbeing Research Centre. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.