The Egyptian Ministry of Health announced the launch of the country’s first electronic national platform, which aims to provide mental health services and addiction treatment free of charge.
According to an official statement issued by the Ministry of Health, the new treatment service is the first of its kind in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, and will be available to all age groups of citizens and residents in Egypt.
During a ceremony held today, Wednesday, on the occasion of the launch of the treatment platform, the head of the General Secretariat of Mental Health and Addiction Treatment, Manen Abdel-Maqsoud, expected that electronic services in the field of mental health would contribute to obtaining counseling and psychological support with high quality, privacy and complete confidentiality.
She explained that the new platform includes a group of technical and technical cadres at the Ministry of Health, as well as international experts in the field of psychiatry and addiction treatment.
During her speech, the representative of the World Health Organization in Egypt, Naima Al-Qusair, expressed her pride in providing a free and easy-to-use electronic platform that achieves equal access to mental health services within Egypt without any discrimination.
She explained the importance of mental health, saying, “There is no health without mental health, as psychological safety is an essential element in the World Health Organization’s definition of health. Good mental health enables a person to realize his potential, and to deal with the natural pressures of life and work productively.”
Telemedicine
The new treatment platform includes 3 main sections. The first section provides educational and awareness content by providing scientific information on common disorders in general psychiatry and its specialized branches, such as child and adolescent psychiatry.
The informational content also includes the symptoms and mechanisms of dealing with psychological crises facing patients and their families, in addition to introducing the services available in the General Secretariat for Mental Health and Addiction Treatment, such as hospitals and centers affiliated with the Secretariat, locations and appointments of specialized clinics and awareness campaigns.
As for the second section, it includes providing psychological support and counseling services through virtual clinics or the so-called “telemedicine.” According to the statement of the Ministry of Health, there are simple steps that can be followed that enable users to assess their psychological state through a general mental health questionnaire.
The same section includes booking a session with a psychotherapist, as the platform provides pictures and information about the doctors participating in the treatment service, so that the user chooses the appropriate doctor among them, as well as chooses the appropriate place and time to perform the session in complete privacy and confidentiality of his data, according to confirmations announced on the platform.
The platform provides the patient with the feature of evaluating the session and seeing the diagnosis of his condition recorded by the therapist. It also allows the therapist to transfer emergency cases to the hotline of the General Secretariat of Mental Health and Addiction Treatment for prompt intervention.
As for the third section, it is for displaying the most important reports on the platform’s statistics, such as the number of users, their age rate, follow-up rate, and the most visited specialties.
The Egyptians are suffering
In 2018, the results of the National Mental Health Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health showed that about 24.7% of Egyptians suffer from psychological symptoms and 7% have mental disorders.
The Ministry of Health conducted the national survey of a random sample of 22,000 families representing the geographical distribution in all governorates, in partnership with the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.
The survey showed that the most prevalent disorders were mood disorders, “depressive disorders in particular”, which amounted to 43.7%, while disorders caused by drug abuse amounted to 30.1%, and despite these high numbers, only 0.4% of those suffering from psychological disorders and symptoms resorted to treatment.
For his part, the advisor to the President of the Republic for mental health and social harmony, Ahmed Okasha, said that 30% of the population of the earth are mentally ill, and 5% of Egyptians suffer from depression.
He explained – in press statements – that one-third of psychiatric patients around the world consider mental and neurological illness to be “a affliction from God”, which makes them not seek treatment.
And he added, “Only 0.5% of patients go to psychiatric and neurological hospitals.”