Jakarta, IO – Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated that 1 in 10 people in Indonesia suffers from mental disorders based on global data which recorded 910 million people or the equivalent of 1 in 8 people in the world are suffering from mental disorders, per Republika, Wednesday (8/11).
He explained that there are three groups of mental disorders based on level of severity. The categories are anxiety disorders, depression and schizophrenia (severe mental disorders).
Based on data from the Health Ministry (Kemenkes), Budi said the prevalence of emotional mental disorders (anxiety or bipolar) reached 9.8 percent, followed by depression (6.1 percent).
Meanwhile, severe mental disorders (schizophrenia) accounts for 0.2 percent. From this data, Budi said that cases of anxiety disorders were among the illnesses that have not been detected optimally.
“In fact, many people suffer from (anxiety disorders),” explained Budi. “Then our early detection was very weak, indeed the detection was still not advanced so it was more observational in nature.”
Budi said that in the future the government will carry out mental health screenings through various health service facilities, including community health centers. “We want all community health centers to be able to carry out mental screening because this is very high and should be handled better,” said Budi.
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“We can’t allow untreated anxiety to progress to depression, to schizophrenia, which has to be treated in mental hospital. This will be too late, it’s like cancer,” he said.
Currently, there are only 5,694 community health centers (55 percent of total community health centers), 279 general hospitals (10.7 percent of total) and 44 psychiatric hospitals or drug addiction hospitals (RSJ/RSKO) in Indonesia that are able to provide mental health services. (un)