Mentally ill patients at the Psychiatric Nursing Care Center in Đa Nang City. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Around 15 percent 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 percent of
Vietnamese live with depression, 2.6 percent suffer from ,
while 0.47 percent 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 Hai Phong 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.
Around 200,000
Vietnamese people suffer from severe mental illnesses, according to a report by
Pham Dung from the Medical Committee Netherlands-Việt Nam (MCNV) at the
meeting. Of these, 98 percent cannot take care of themselves, 15 percent show
violent behaviour, and 37 percent are yet to receive medication for treatment.
Around 18 percent 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 .
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 percent 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.
— VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
