RM1 to check your head

Kota Kinabalu: A Malaysian can check his or her mental status for just RM1 at any of the 78 government health clinics excluding the 1Malaysia clinics in Sabah.

State Health Director Dr Mohd Yusof Ibrahim, who disclosed this, said the service has been available to Malaysians in Sabah since last year.

"The Health Ministry has provided this service to all Malaysians who wish to assess their mental status. And they are only required to pay RM1 as the registration fee for medical check-up or to check their mental health status.

"We encourage the people of Sabah to grab this service which is made easy for them. They would be given a set of questionnaires compiled by the Health Ministry to answer and the result would be issued instantly," he said.

Dr Mohd Yusof said this when asked whether such service in the peninsula is also available in Sabah.

On Oct 13, the national media reported that Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai wants more Malaysians to go for the test.

He said the aim of the mental health screening exercise is to identify depression and other symptoms related to one's mental state.

Liow said the National Health and Morbidity Survey from 1996 to 2006 showed cases of psychiatric morbidity or unhealthy mental health among adults increased by 11.2 per cent in 2006 compared to 10.6 per cent in 1996.

Dr Mohd Yusof said the results of the service would be based on a scoring system or a scale that will determine the mental health status of a person.

"If the score of the mental health assessment shows that the person is unstable, then the clinic doctors would issue a referral so that the person can go for psychiatric assessment with our specialists in Hospital Mesra at Bukit Padang, here, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan and a government hospital in Tawau.

"It would be good for the locals to grab this service so that preventive measures can be taken to address their stress level and he or she can learn how to cope," he said.