Eight hundred thousand people in Sri Lanka suffer from some form of depression. Thirty six psychiatrists worked in Sri Lanka prior to the tsunami. The figure had doubled to 77 by 2016. During the same period, the number of Medical Officers of Mental Health rose from 34 to 205, WHO Representative to Sri Lanka Dr. Jacob Kumaresan told the `Daily News' yesterday.
Dr. Kumaresan said Sri Lanka’s transformation of mental health services over the past 15 years has been nothing short of remarkable. Since the devastating tsunami in 2004, the country has experienced a dramatic change in the provision of mental health services, with increased political commitment, funding and a shift in priorities.
He said Sri Lanka has 217 outreach clinics providing mental healthcare at the community level, covering almost every health division in the country. The number of mental health workers dramatically increased over the past 15 years with new training programmes and professional posts created within the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine.
While Sri Lanka has made excellent progress in the field, the public must be inspired to access these services. People must learn to recognise the symptoms of depression early. About 15 percent of new mothers experience postpartum depression, he said.
Throughout the world, 350 million suffer from depression.
The majority of whom do not receive treatment. As people lead increasingly stressful lifestyles, depression is on the rise.
It is the leading cause of disability, causing an estimated loss of US $ 1 trillion to the global economy each year through lost productivity, he added.
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