Materia Medica Malaysiana

Extend benefits to mental patients, says social activist: "PENANG Sept 19 - The government should include mental patients as beneficiaries of incentives for the disabled as announced under the Budget 2004, social activist Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said Friday.
He said it was regrettable that mental patients would not qualify for the various benefits given to the disabled.
Mental patients should be categorised as disabled for them to enjoy such benefits, said Lee, who is National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) chairman.
'In view that the 2004 budget is still being debated in the Dewan Rakyat and not yet passed, I propose that the government consider (improving) mental patients' access to treatment and medicines which are quite expensive,' he told reporters after the opening of the Mental Health Forum by Penang Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon here.
Lee also urged the government to give higher allocations to the Health Ministry so that it could undertake more programmes to promote mental health.
He said the number of mental patients had been increasing because of the pressures of modern-day living.
Lee said a study conducted in 1996 showed that 10.7 percent of the people in the country suffered from mental disorders.
'I believe the problem has become more serious, and it is time for the government to make a new study to update the data,' he said.
Earlier, in his speech, Lee said recent scientific and medical research showed that mental health was a foundation for good health as the two were inseparable.
He said patients with mental illness suffered a great deal from the effects of the illness and the inability to function normally.
On top of that they also faced discrimination and rejection from the community, which had a detrimental effect on their recovery, he said.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), he said, one out of five individuals would develop a common mental disorder such as depression or anxiety every year.
Two out of every 100 people will develop schizophrenia or manic depression (bipolar disorder) in their lifetime and two to three percent of all families have a family member affected by intellectual disability.