EASIER ACCESS TO MENTAL Care
Family doctors Mark Yap claimed that those with mental health issues may feel more motivated to request help by bringing these services close to people’s homes.
Patients may feel more at ease at a clinic, rather than going to the Institute of Mental Health ( IMH), which could prompt fears of being stigmatised, Dr Yap added.
The GP, who works at Cashew Medical and Surgery in Bukit Panjang, said:” By decentralizing it, by getting Satellite as lovers, it may go a long way to support destigmatise emotional health and help more people to get help in a timely manner.”
As early detection and treatment can lead to protection, according to Associate Professor Swapna Verma, it is crucial to establish mental health services in the community.
” Early treatment makes a big difference to recovery”, the president of IMH’s health board told CNA’s Singapore Tonight program.
People may get help first, and that would stop their condition from getting worse, and from requiring hospitalization or specialist care, according to the statement.
Group SUPPORT
Also, individuals who are at risk of developing mental health conditions can seek out support from community outreach teams.  ,
For those presenting mild symptoms, GPs may work with community action teams to supply assessment, mental medical intervention, counselling and medical treatment.
By 2030, the Ministry of Health ( MOH) aims to expand the number of outreach teams and intervention teams to 90 and 50 respectively, including 15 teams each for students.
The Singapore Association for Mental Health ( SAMH) is one of the many social service organizations that are involved in these community initiatives.  ,
The non-profit offers counseling both online and on-site at nine places in Singapore and conducts group education and outreach activities on mental wellbeing.
Art treatment, in which participants express and process their thoughts and emotions through artwork, is one of its innovative medical intervention programs.
A unique piece of artwork from 12 boys about how social and early experiences have shaped their mental well-being is now being displayed at the SAMH Space2Connect center along Maude Road.
The students were given a three-month process of creating art, led by the agency’s senior director Ngo Lee Yian, who was trained in art therapy.
” They try to access their thoughts, how they have gone through their childhood, and they came up with the different art approaches to show themselves”, she said.
Protective MENTAL HEALTH
According to MOH’s most recent mental health review in 2016, at least one in seven people in Singapore has a psychological problem.
The best common mental health issues Singaporeans experience include major depressive disorder, depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and alcohol use disorder.
Assoc Prof Verma said problems have arisen over the rising prevalence of mental disease, particularly following the COVID-19 crisis, and especially among students.
” Maybe, people still view it as a specific weakness, or they believe that people with mental illnesses are dangerous,” they said. That creates a lot of discrimination. She said that the person who has a mental condition waits to seek help because of how society views him or her.
She continued, stating that knowledge is essential to earlier detection.
She added that by promoting mental health education in students and families, they will be more likely to recognize symptoms in their peers or family members and encourage them to get help.
” With understanding comes understanding and usability. We need a society with more mental health literacy, ( which ) then becomes more understanding and inclusive”, said Assoc Prof Verma.
MOH stated that it will continue to work on emotional health initiatives to improve youth resilience, create visible first-stop contact points, and address workplace mental health issues.