24m people in Pakistan require psychiatric care, symposium told

The Departments of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts and School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS) at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, organised a symposium titled ‘Mental Health: Why is it a Global Priority?’.

The symposium comprised brief talks by guest speakers, including Dr Nargis Asad of the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Consultant Psychiatrist AKUH Dr Shireen Najam, Country Director Interactive Research and Development Pakistan Aneeta Pasha and Chief Executive Officer Karachi Down Syndrome Programme (KDSP) Samar Naqvi, about mental health and associated factors.

Dr Sahar Nadeem, the chairperson of the Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, commenced the symposium and discussed the importance of mental health and how it defines health. Dr Asad shed light on the importance of understanding psychosocial determinants of mental health. She said 24 million people in Pakistan required psychiatric care and the availability of trained mental health professionals was far less than the demand. The country had only 0.19 psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants.

Pasha spoke about the importance of mental health and the need for awareness of mental health issues in the workplace. She said that many organisations and individuals in the world were unaware of mental health issues, and organisations considered people with mental health issues dispensable. She emphasised that a paradigm shift was needed, and organisations should invest in the mental well-being of their employees by adopting a more humanistic value system.

Providing statistics on people with disabilities in Pakistan, the CEO KDSP shared that 1 in 7 people had some form of disability, of them, 80 per cent resided in developing countries. She said people with disabilities feel a lack of belonging. She highlighted ways through which people with disabilities could be supported.

The second segment of the symposium was a panel discussion which was moderated by Assistant Professor IBA Dr Ayesha Zia. The audience participated in the discussion by asking questions and the panelists gave insightful answers. Answering a question, Wellness Counsellor IBA Ali stated that the IBA had been offering free mental health counseling to its students for the past six years. The counselors help the students to develop healthy coping mechanisms to deal with their daily stressors and mental health issues.