Up to 13.5 million Vietnamese suffer mental disorders
Around 15% of Vietnam’s population – approximately 13.5 million people – suffer from 10 of the more common mental disorders, reveal statistics released on November 29.
Around 2.8% of Vietnamese live with depression, 2.6% suffer from anxiety disorder, while 0.47% have schizophrenia, the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) online newspaper reported.
The data was revealed on November 29 at the start of a two-day meeting in Haiphong City, organised by Lao dong va Xa hoi (Labour and Society) magazine and the Social Protection Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs.
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| Mentally ill patients at the Psychiatric Nursing Care Center in Danang City. |
Around 200,000 Vietnamese people suffer from severe mental illnesses, according to a report by Pham Dung from the Medical Committee Netherlands-Vietnam (MCNV) at the meeting. Of these, 98% cannot take care of themselves, 15% show violent behaviour, and 37% are yet to receive medication for treatment.
Around 18% of families of patients with severe mental illnesses reportedly face discrimination from the community.
The social protection department has only 45 centres across the country that offer care for patients with mental disorders.
Shortage of facilities and trained staff were the main challenges faced by the programme to take care of such patients, the department said.
To fix the situation, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has set targets to provide care and functional rehabilitation services for 90% of people with severe mental illnesses by 2020. It also aims to conduct awareness programmes so that local communities stop discriminating against patients and their families.
