Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing (FKKMK) UGM performed Winter Course on Interprofessional Health Care on February 13-24 2020. In this fourth performance of Winter Course, the theme carries out mental health in the millennial era.
“Mental health issue has become our greatest problem we have nowadays. This problem needs to be handled not only by the hospital but also by the family and community,” said the Dean Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing (FKKMK) UGM, Prof. dr. Ova Emilia, M.Med.Ed., PhD., SpOG(K), on Tuesday (14/1)
The basic health data research which was done by the Health Ministry in 2018 indicated that the prevalence of people who suffered from mental disorders increases from 0.15 percent to 0.18 percent.
The prevalence of emotional mental disorders to the population from age 15 years old above also increases from 6.1 percent in 2013 to 9.8 percent in 2018. This means, over 12 million population from age 15 years old above in Indonesia are suffering from depression.
The advances in digital technology and the development of social media is frequently called as one of the causes which makes mental health disorders cases increases rapidly, it relates to especially device addicted. One of the interviewees from University of Sydney, Prof. Hans Pols, said that device itself was not a dangerous thing if it was used wisely.
“A device can be a great functional thing. People who have social anxiety, for example, they can support each other because they have smartphone. So, it depends on how it used,” he said.
One of the issues in the realm of young generation which becomes center attention from any parties is the significant level of suicides. Global search by WHO mentioned that more than 800 thousand people die every year because of suicide or for about one person every 40 seconds commits suicide. In many cases, suicide happens because of someone suffers from depression.
“60 percent suicide cases happen because of depression. However, most of people do not realize that they actually suffer from depression,” said the Head of Psychiatry FKKMK, Dr.dr. Carla R. Marchira, Sp.KJ(K).
She also added, in the in the midst of the circulation of various kinds of information, including the information about the mental health itself, the society needs to be wise to sort out any information and not easily believes the things they heard.
To her, the information which is not accurate, will cause other serious problem even more. She encourages society to have their consultations directly with psychologist or psychiatrist if they have some problems related to mental health.
“If you are too shy to go to psychologist, at least you can go to the counselor. Please find the accurate information,” said Carla.
Similar things are also delivered by Prof. Dr. Firdaus Mukhtar from Malaysia Putra University. Nevertheless, the amount of psychologist or psychiatrist in Indonesia is still limited. Prof. Byron Good from Harvard Medical School said that the amount of psychologist and psychiatrist in Indonesia are far away from the amount needed.
Therefore, he thinks it is necessarily to think the solution on how to fulfill those needs in nowadays era foremost.
“We need to think on how to create system which can solve these problems,” said Byron.
Reporter: Gloria
Translator: Sasa