Raising the slogan “because the great battle is taking place inside us every day”, a group of Moroccan youth launched a digital campaign to raise awareness of the importance of psychotherapy, and to invite specialists to provide free psychological consultations, coinciding with the World Mental Health Day, which falls tomorrow, Monday, October 10.
The initiative called “FreePsy” invites doctors and psychologists to join the campaign and provide free remote consultations, by making their phone numbers available to patients who cannot afford treatment or who are reluctant to seek advice.
According to those in charge of the campaign, which was launched on social media platforms, it is “an opportunity for a number of citizens to try psychological counseling, to be sure of its strength and necessity, and to accept as soon as possible to take advantage of it to change their lives for the better.”
Young people launch a campaign under the name #FreePsy on social media to invite doctors and psychologists to provide a free consultation. Coinciding with a day…
Posted by Moroccan Digital Club on Thursday, October 6, 2022
“The shortcomings of psychological frameworks”
Morocco knows a great shortage of human resources in the field of mental health, in contrast to a wide spread of mental and psychological disorders, according to data presented by the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Khaled Ait Taleb.
The health official explained that mental health is a major problem within the public health problems in Morocco, noting that these disorders are characterized by their heavy cost, whether at the social or economic level, and the phenomenon of stigma that leads to discrimination, which limits the possibility of people suffering from these disorders access to treatment.
A study by the Ministry of Health showed that 42.1 percent of Moroccans suffered from a mental or psychological disorder at some point in their lives; While 26 percent of all suffer from depression (five and a half million people), 9 percent suffer from anxiety, 5 percent suffer from mental disorders, and 1 percent suffer from schizophrenia (about 370,000 people).
Against these numbers, Morocco has 343 psychiatrists and 214 psychologists; 200 of them work in the private sector, 1,335 psychiatric nurses, 16 child psychiatrists, 14 social assistants, and 64 doctors trained in addiction treatment, according to ministry data.
“Community Therapy”
Hamza Al-Tarbawi, one of the organizers of the initiative, says, “The idea behind launching the campaign comes from our daily follow-up to the problems that our society knows and the psychological disorders suffered by many groups of society,” noting that “a significant number of people suffer in their work, personal and social lives, all of which are Problems that may be solved simple by consulting a psychiatrist, but no one, only a few, does this.
Hamza Al-Tarbawi, in a statement to Al-Hurra, highlights that through his personal follow-up to the issue, there are two types of people; Those who want to visit a psychiatrist, but the treatment prices do not encourage them, and a second category that does not originally recognize the benefit of psychiatry, therefore, he says: “We took advantage of the World Mental Health Day, to launch the campaign in an attempt to raise awareness of the importance of psychotherapy and to enable those who want it to have free classes.”
A statement presented to the campaign stated: “When a person becomes physically ill, he rushes to the nearest doctor, even if he has to borrow, but he does not do the same when it comes to his mental health, although it is not secondary, to its direct repercussions on physical health, personal and professional life.”
Regarding the interaction of specialists and psychiatrists with the initiative, Al-Tarbawi reveals that it is “different”; Some of them agreed quickly, some hesitated before verifying its background, and others refused due to their preoccupation or not being convinced of the idea of the initiative.
And the civil actor continues, that the initiative seeks to collect the largest number of approvals and then allocate free days for consultation from time to time, pointing out that “this is in the interest of those wishing for treatment or psychological support, and in the interest of doctors as well, to increase the demand for their services.”
Al-Tarbawi concludes his speech by saying: “In the end, raising awareness of the importance of psychotherapy for the benefit of society as a whole. Its health means fewer problems in life, work, and relationships between its members.”
mental disorders worldwide
According to data from the World Health Organization, one out of every four people around the world suffers from some form of mental health disorder, but despite this, only 60 percent of those who suffer seek help.
And last May, the World Health Organization called on all countries of the world to increase their investments in the field of mental health, stressing that the “suffering is enormous” at this level and has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
WHO data indicate that before the start of the pandemic, about one billion people in the world were suffering from some kind of mental disorder, and during the first year of the pandemic, the incidence of depression and anxiety increased by a quarter.
The “Global Report on Mental Health” also highlighted the vast differences between countries in terms of access to medical care needed in terms of mental health.
The World Health Organization estimates that governments spend less than 2 percent of their total health budgets on mental health. This spending is mainly allocated to psychiatric hospitals, except for high-income countries, where the figure is around 43 percent.