The government is striving to deliver mental healthcare to all of Bangladesh's 170 million people by harnessing the power of technology, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Department Zunaid Ahmed Palak said on Tuesday.
He said the immense power of information technology - including social media, AI and machine learning - would allow Bangladesh to scale solutions to meet society-wide mental healthcare needs.
“About 30 million people are suffering from health problems in the country. About 18% of adults and 13% of children are at risk of suffering from mental health issues.
"There are many others who do not know that they are psychologically at risk. It is a terrible thing,” he said.
The deployment of technology would bolster traditional capacity-building measures like training doctors and caregivers, and integrating mental health awareness into both primary healthcare offerings and educational syllabi at all levels, he said.
The state minister was addressing the participants of a roundtable discussion at a Dhaka hotel on the topic of improving the delivery of mental healthcare in Bangladesh, organised by a2i, with support from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and USAID.
The roundtable, held in strategic partnership with the Dhaka Tribune on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, is part of an a2i awareness campaign that also includes social media influencers speaking out about mental health awareness and an online mental health educational course available on the MuktoPaath platform. Support for the initiatives also came from the ICT Division and the ministries of health and education.
Palak called for initiatives to train more psychologists, as the number of mental health professionals in the country is inadequate considering its large population.
“There are only 300 psychologists and 500 psychiatrists in our country. That means there is a need to increase the number of psychiatrists for 170 million people. I think it is one of the responsibilities of the government of Bangladesh to ensure physical health as well as mental health to make this country a smart Bangladesh,” he added.
He also said the government had brought physical and mental health care to the grassroot level, as there are now 13,500 community clinics across the country.
High-speed broadband internet at all clinics in two years
“We can connect to the health complexes that exist at the district and upazila levels digitally. A mother can get regular check-ups and physical therapy as well as mental health treatment at community clinics during her maternity period. If the community clinics are not able to provide the service, then we will provide mental health services through the online platform of 'Muktopaath' a2i,” he added.
He said the clinics would all have high-speed broadband internet within the next two years, as well as various other equipment to ensure that any citizen in any district or upazila can have access to physical and mental health services.
“If we can give a minimum training on mental health to all the doctors, nurses, health assistants in Bangladesh, then we can bring billions of people under this health care,” he said.
“Bangladesh has 130 million internet and over 50 million Facebook users. We want to start the promotional activity of a2i from today. At the same time, parents and 170,000 teachers of the country's educational institutions should be aware of physical health as well as the mental health of children and adolescents,” Palak further said.
Earlier in the day a roundtable meeting was organized by a2i under the auspices of the Information and Communication Technology Division and with support from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and USAID on the theme Positive Pathways to Mental Health and Wellness for SMART Bangladesh 2041.
Experts at the roundtable called on the government to initiate concerted efforts to address and tackle mental health issues among children and adults which, according to them, is crucial to establishing Bangladesh as a knowledge-based economy and an innovative nation under the Smart Bangladesh 2041 vision.
Although Bangladesh has adequate policies, strategic plans, and laws to address and tackle mental health issues, the implementation of those policies remains elusive, experts said during the seminar.
At the beginning of the roundtable, Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed, associate professor at the National Institute of Mental Health in Dhaka, presented the overall status of mental health conditions in Bangladesh.
“Over 18% of Bangladeshi adults are suffering from mental health issues,” he said in his keynote speech.
Among them, over 90% of patients don’t have access to mental health care services, he added.
The reasons, Dr Helal said, are both social stigma and lack of mental health services available to them.
He stressed the need to include mental health care services in both primary and tertiary levels.
Experts also emphasized the need for initiatives to bolster manpower to provide adequate mental health services to people in need.
Currently, Bangladesh has only one mental health professional for 100,000 people, according to a report by the World Health Organization.
