Dr Seema Pervaz, associate professor of National Institute of Psychology, has said that 400 million individuals in the world suffer from mental and neurological disorders, mental disorders represent more than 12 percent of the diseases.
She was addressing a panel discussion on "Mental Health Services -Need and Availability", organised by ROZAN, an NGO, working on mental and emotional health of women, here on Saturday.
Besides Dr Seema, the panel participants were Dr Aftab Khan, psychiatrist, Ayesha Muzzafar, psychologist from Agan and Ayesha Khan from Zest.
Dr Seema said: "About 24 percent of patients that seek primary health care suffer from some form of mental disorder." She further said: "There is dire need to highlight mental health disorders. The government, civil societies and other stakeholders should pool their resources to create awareness and provide service to people on mental health problems.
Ayesha Muzzafar said that society must create awareness on the need and availability of psychological counselling and services on mental health.
She emphasised that any effort to develop the society while ignoring the emotional and mental well being of individuals is a fruitless effort.
Dr Aftab said: "Violence against women indicates the prevailing patriarchal attitude towards women. This not only harmful to women but also to the society at large."
COLD RESPONSE: He said that cold response and apathy of common people on this issue is alarming in the entire scenario and the community instead of pressurising the authorities to hand over the justice shun the issues by saying that it is a private matter.
He said: "There is lack of educational and awareness raising material on the subject of community action and man involvement in the efforts that lead to violence against women."
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