Meditation, exercise, journaling, practising mental hygiene (as you do dental hygiene), mindful play – 5 experts’ tips for good mental health
- On World Mental Health Day 2022, October 10, almost a billion people will be living with a mental illness, and professional help can be hard to find
- Tips for mental health self-help and helping others include talking about your mental health, being friends with yourself, and listening without judging
Almost a billion people live with a mental illness, according to the World Health Organization. That’s more than 10 per cent of the world’s population, and includes around one in five of all children and adolescents.
Depression and anxiety cost the global economy US$1 trillion each year, yet before the coronavirus pandemic the average government spent less than 2 per cent of its national health budget on mental health.
Because of this, people who are brave enough to seek help – which takes strength and courage – often don’t get it quickly enough.
Minal Mahtani, CEO and founder of OCD & Anxiety Support Hong Kong, is familiar with the situation in Hong Kong. The waiting time for non-urgent cases to see a government psychiatrist, she says, ranges from 48 to 125 weeks.
The average time a psychiatrist has to spend with a patient once they finally see them is between five and seven minutes – so there’s only enough time to prescribe medication, rather than get to the crux of why a person is feeling the way they’re feeling.
“It breaks my heart,” Mahtani says, “to know how many people are suffering and how little support there is out there.”
