By Sheeda Fathil
SHAH ALAM, June 22 —Those suffering from mental disorders including stress-related or depression are urged to contact the professional counsellors at Sehat hotline that was set up earlier this month.
Selangor Mental Health Programme (Sehat) coordinator Dr Muhammad ‘Adil Zainal Abidin said individuals wanting to share their problems can contact the hotline at 1700-82-7536 or 1700-82-7537.
He said the hotline is open 24 hours daily and operated by experienced counsellors who were appointed to listen and help resolve the problems they encountered.
“Many individuals are actually facing mental problems but taking it easy and do not want to seek expert advice or views, maybe because they fear being embarrassed.
“Therefore, the Selangor government has created a hotline for them to just call and talk to the counsellors without needing to meet face-to-face, as may be from there it can help them a little bit,” he told SelangorKini.
Dr Muhammad ‘Adil who is also a public health physician advised people not to underestimate emotional stress for fear that it will be detrimental to their mental health in the future.
“Apart from contacting this line, the public can also undergo Sehat screening through the SELangkah mobile app to determine their level of stress,” he added.
The state administration had on August 30 last year launched the Sehat initiative with a total allocation of RM500,000 to tackle the worrying mental health issues since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country.
The Sehat feature on the SELangkah app allows users to have access to the mental health screening test, risk screening, psychoeducation videos, WhatsDoc portal and the mental health literacy scale.
The feature allows users to assess their mental state via stress self-screening.
