Materia Medica Malaysiana

Anti-smoking drive yet to reach its mark, says Chua

KUALA LUMPUR: The RM100mil “Tak Nak” anti-smoking campaign is not achieving much success but has instead raised cries of dissatisfaction from healthcare-related NGOs.

Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said the private company running this five-year campaign had not contacted any of the NGOs ever since its launch.

“It was agreed earlier that activities between the NGOs and the company would be co-ordinated but there has been no initiative shown.

“The ministry agrees that this campaign has not reached a level of success that we can be proud of,” he told a press conference after the Health Dialogue Council 2004 attended by 20 NGOs yesterday.

The NGOs, Dr Chua said, had raised this matter during the dialogue.

The participants also raised concern over sensitivity to female victims of abuse and rape among the ministry’s officials, including health experts and support staff.

“We will have programmes to increase sensitivity of our staff to needs of female victims.

“There will be an official launch and awareness campaign to promote the One-Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC) in September or October,” he said.

The centre, which provides medical and follow-up care such as counselling and shelter to survivors of violence against women and children in state hospitals, will also be set up in district hospitals in the next two years.

“Victims will have a simple form to fill in to prevent any missing information needed for legal action later,” said Dr Chua.

He also said the 9th Malaysia Plan would place emphasis on education, treatment and aftercare of mental health patients, quoting a research conducted by the ministry that 13% of children aged five to 15 have mild mental health problems.

“The director-general has been appointed to look into these and to see if there is a need to build half-way house for borderline cases,” he said.