Today is the World Mental Health Day, a day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy. This day is celebrated amid events to raise awareness about mental health across the world. This year's theme of the day is 'mental health is a universal human right'. In Bangladesh, various government and private educational institutions and NGOs (non-government organisations) observe the day with an array of programmes.
Mental health is of vital important in a person's life. Generally, if you have good mental health, you will be able to carry out your daily activities smoothly, face various challenges, make quick and accurate decisions and play a greater role in the development of society and the country. We, however, are not as conscious about the importance of mental health as we are about physical health. Sometimes, mental health condition becomes worse but we do not seem to pay much attention to it. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the ministry of health, about 30 million people in Bangladesh are suffering from some kind of mental health problems. According to experts, this problem is increasing day by day as a result of not taking care of one's own mental health and not consulting with psychiatrists for mental problems.
Tough time comes in everyone's lives. No one is really free from adversity and hardships. But in such bad times, some people break down and go through mental issues.
Is such situations, it really matters how we deal with them and how well we take care of our mental health. When we are aware of the mental problem and go to a psychiatrist to address it, it becomes easier to get out of this situation. Currently, different government medical colleges provide free mental health care.
Besides, there are many private organisations and NGOs, which are actively working on mental health service. Their service includes both online and offline counselling and immediate mental health care. The number of psychiatrists in Bangladesh is, however, not adequate. And we reportedly have only one psychiatrist for 216,000 people. We need more psychiatrists and counsellors. Other things we can do for our mental health are eating nutritious food, staying active, getting enough sleep, taking regular exercise, spending time with loved ones, being grateful, etc.
Muhammad Sultan Mahmud,
Student of Department of Psychology,
Dhaka College, Dhaka,
sultanmahmudofficial27@gmail.com
