By Sheeda Fathil
SHAH ALAM, March 29 — Some 30,000 individuals have benefitted from the Selangor Mental Health Programme (Sehat) as of December last year, says state executive councillor for public health Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud.
She said this year, the initiative has been improved by allocating subsidies to individuals who require professional diagnosis or further treatment with psychiatrists.
“The state government aims for up to 120,000 individuals to benefit from the programme which could be accessed via the SELangkah mobile application.
“InsyaAllah (God willing), the programme will be conducted in collaboration with the Malaysian Psychiatric Association (MPA),” she said during an exclusive interview with Media Selangor recently.
Dr Siti Mariah added on average, the age range of the user’s apps is between 10 to 82 years old with the majority (57.8 per cent) being in the range of 30 to 50 years old.
“Any individuals with mental health problems could see a specialist immediately without having to wait long..
In November last year, Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari during the 2022 Selangor Budget tabling said the public health allocation has increased to RM65 million for this year compared to RM56.6 million in 2021.
He said the increment was in line with the state government’s agenda to prioritise people’s health.