Concept

This house supports the idea that Malaysia is not well equipped to deal with the increasing amount
of mental health issues. To make our concept coherent, let me underline the definition of well-
equipped. According to the dictionary, well equipped is define as supplied with all the necessary
equipment. Now, as explained by the government, there’s a clear line that differentiate increasing
and existing, but does a tree exist on their own or there’s a seed that were planted waiting for its
resource in order for its to sprout. As we all know, mental health issue is a rooted problem that were
cause by a lot of things, for instance childhood abuse, experiencing discrimination, bereavement so
on and so forth. This is our seed that’s waiting for its time to burgeon. As for our resource, it’s the
negative surrounding that encourage it to grow. Let’s put us in a situation where Malaysia is
fundamentally ready with the increasing of mental health issue, which I doubt. If the treatment is,
allegedly came to a success, then the tree was hewed, but does that mean the problems came to an
end? Ladies and gentlemen, as easy as a flicked in a finger, the answer that you’re searching is no,
considering it’s a rooted problem. To summaries, this house agrees on the idea that Malaysia is not
well-resourced to handle mental health issue that has been increasing drastically amongst its people.

In response to the government statement, mental health topics that were apart of school formal
syllabus under the PEER’S section on physical education and language-oriented subject have failed to
spark an awareness amongst student. This notion draws the attention that the government only
educate the students but it’s not done in a way where student would interest to apply it on their
daily life. Albeit there’s no secret that the younger generation are well-rounded about mental
health, but this happens because of how their social media surrounding expose them about this
subject. Take TikTok as an example, truly there’s myriads of videos that discuss this exact topic on
the for you page every single day. This can implement awareness because it was compelling enough
to knock on their hearts. The younger generation are often very curious about their surrounding and
opportunities in the world, so it was a well-known fact that a simple video can be the cause of late-
night research about this particular subject. So, why the exact same thing can’t happen with the
syllabuses that were impose in subjects? It’s because the syllabuses weren’t executed rigorously to
feed their curiosity and how most mental health related syllabuses are inadequately explained. This
can spark a rooted abhorrence amongst student towards the government because it shows that they
don’t gave two cents about mental health.

1st case

This gave an open door to my first axiom of the day which is lack of professionalism among its
employees and management. There’s a lot of recorded cases that address this issue, such as how
most suicide hotline would put their callers on hold up to five hours or refuse to connect with callers
by answering with bunch of “I don’t know”. This put up a question on how they even pass the 100
hours of training before they became one of the suicide hotline operators. Allegedly, operators
must be able to work in high-stress situations, follow scripts and prompts be able to asses a
dangerous situation quickly and then be able to take appropriate action. These responsibilities have
been explained during the training program that they faced. This is a finest example how prosper in
a test or training doesn’t portray their work ethics in the future.

Another recorded case that tells how abysmal their management about how a girl trying to get a
mental health help in a government facility, and considering how a session can cost up to RM250 to
RM 300 per hour in NGO facility. Also highlighting on the fact that most mental health issue involve
students and adolescents, who generally speaking have no solid income and lives below their
parents’ roof. She’s trying to get a referral letter from the private GPs to check in the psychiatrist
department in a government hospital. The private GPs were both hesitant to give her a letter, one of
them even dismissed her struggles while the other one recommended a private sector so she can
access help immediately. That’s a valid reason, but not everyone is affluent enough to request help
from a private institution. This further shows that the government hospitals are overwhelmed
because there’s a limited employee while the patients dilate every single day. In 2019, there were
609 suicide cases reported, followed by 631 in 2020 and 336 in the first quarter of 2021. These
statistics increase every year and attain half of the amount in 2020 in a span of the first three
months of 2021. This anecdote draws back to the lack of professionalism in employee and
management. The government dwindle to provide an ideal amount of psychiatrist in its institution
because of its debilitated management.

This further proves that Malaysia is not well equipped with the increasing of mental health issue.

2nd case
Very well then, let’s continue with our second case for today which is lack effective exposure.

According to Counseling Psychology Officer, Noor Ajeerah, “It’s a challenge to change the stigma that
has been implemented generation long.” The stigma that she’s referring to is how the public is afraid
to seek out for help because they will be seen as a disgrace, incompetent in terms of self-care and
weak with regard to faith in a religion. Now, it’s a no brainer to say that there’s absolutely no effort
to introduce mental health in our society, because frankly, there’s a lot. But, let’s point our finger on
its effectiveness, which is atrocious.

A recorded case shows how a 16-year-old girl has reportedly killed herself in Malaysia, after posting
a poll on her Instagram account asking followers if she should die or not, and 69% of responders
voting that she should. A lot of people response to this case follows the line on blaming the victim
gullibility. There’s even a user saying that the article writer shouldn’t inscribe this report to the
public because it’s ‘a sensitive topic’. Be that as it may, in order to expose people with mental health
issue, it should be able to discuss it publicly. This clearly shows that mental health is still a taboo
amongst society, and the program that has been done by the government or non-government
organization fails to break the social stigma.

The most recent epidemiological data published in 2015 by the Malaysian Ministry of Health,
identified that the prevalence of mental health disorders among adults was 29%. This is a threefold
increase in comparison with the 10% prevalence rate identified in 1996. Now, with the increase of
this prevalence rate, it must show that the adults or the older generation are well-rounded in this
subject, right? Wrong. In Facebook there’s a lot of adults, averaging at 40.5 years old disregarding
the important of mental health. An article tells a story about a Hafizah tried to commit suicide by
locking herself up and setting the room on fire. Since the attempt failed, she expected her parents to
give a morale support, but the opposite thing happens, which is they punished her. Hence, educating
them should be the upmost priority considering they’re the ones who made the decision for this
country. I’m not denying that educating youngsters is important, but the adults ranging from
Boomers to Millennials are the one who’s making resolution to current problems.

Thereby, if it fails to show effectiveness, thousands of programs wouldn’t mean anything

3rd case

Moving on to our final case, which falls under the keyword lack of foundation.

An article was written about a girl sharing her experience being in a psych ward after facing suicidal
thoughts. The psych ward institution was clearly in a bad shape, considering there’s no lock for the
toilet and she had to witness others bathing naked. Yes, there’s a reason why locks are forbidden
inside a psych ward, which is to ensure the patients weren’t committing suicide, but there’s a lot of
other alternatives that can be used. This can set a bad reputation to psych ward institution as whole
which ties in with the lack of foundation.

RM 70 million were allocated to fund the treatment of mental health in Malaysia, but this is still
considered as low juxtaposition to neighboring countries such as Australia which is RM 6.853 billion
were issued for mental health alone. 300 clinical psychologist is not enough to accommodate mental
health issue considering there’s a lot of complaints issued on how long is the waiting list.

So that explained the weaknesses of services that were provided by the government facilities, what
about NGOs that provide a cheap service under RM100? Humankind provides a session that costs
RM50 per session. But do note that this session is conduct by a trainee. If let’s say, someone is short
out of money and they need help as soon as possible, but the waiting line for government service is
long and so they need to refer a private institution, considering it’s economical. But the service that
was substandard considering it was conducted by a trainee. So, the RM50 burn to session that
doesn’t deliver on what it should’ve. Malaysia doesn’t invest enough money on the facilities and
professional psychiatrist.

This shows that Malaysia lacks a lot of things to handle the increasing amount of mental health.