AKU commemorates “World Mental Health Day”
October 11, 2010
Aga Khan University organised a seminar to commemorate World Mental Health Day on October 11, 2010, choosing the theme ‘Burden of Care in Mental Illness’. Pivotal issues such as the stigma attached to mental illness, supporting and taking care of the mentally challenged, and the stress of doing so in the Pakistani context were the main focus of the two-hour evening session.
Addressing the audience, Dr Murad Moosa Khan, Consultant Psychiatrist and Chair, Department of Psychiatry at AKU highlighted the negligible number of facilities present in Pakistan for long-term rehabilitation of psychiatric patients. He also shed light on how families undergo severe stress in taking care of family members who are mentally compromised, emphasising the role that both government and the private sector should play in supporting such families who have to bear both the direct and indirect cost of the illness. Dr Haider A. Naqvi, Consultant Psychiatrist at AKU, highlighted the stigma attached to mental illness in the country in particular and the world in general; resting the charge on the way mental illness is portrayed in the media. He maintained that media in Pakistan is marred by ignorance and myths that lead to this negative depiction. “It becomes pivotal to increase awareness about mental illness in society and treat the suffering with dignity and respect, which will in turn encourage them come forward and seek help,” he said.
Dr Naila Bhutto, Consultant Psychiatric, AKU, also spoke on the occasion, talking about the stress involved in caring for the mentally compromised. She maintained that some psychiatric illnesses require long-term care, which is very stressful for carers, affecting their own personal mental health and in turn the quality of care giving and increasing the chances of patient negligence. She stressed that due to this reason, it is essential to support the caregivers and provide them with strategies to deal with their stress.
Consultant Psychologist Dr Nargis Asad’s lecture on the joy of caring for the mentally ill and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, AKU, Dr Syed Ahmer’s session on '“I don’t want others to know”: an alcoholic in the family' were also received well.
About Aga Khan University Hospital
Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi (AKUH, K), started operations in 1985, as an integrated, health care delivery component of Aga Khan University. It is a philanthropic, not-for-profit, private teaching institution committed to providing the best possible options for diagnosis of disease and team management of patient care. Seventy-nine per cent of all patients treated at AKUH are from low- to middle-income areas. Those who are unable to pay for treatment receive assistance through a variety of subsidies including the Hospital’s Patient Welfare Programme that has disbursed Rs 2.5billion to more than 380,000 people since 1986.
About Aga Khan University
AKU was chartered in 1983 as Pakistan’s first private university. Its objective is to promote human welfare in general, and the welfare of the people of Pakistan in particular, by disseminating knowledge and providing instruction, training, research and service in the health sciences, education and such other branches of learning as the University may determine. AKU also has programmes in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan, Syria and Egypt.
www.aku.edu
الإثنين سبتمبر 11, 2023 8:10 am من طرف الاسماعيلي اليامي
