PETALING JAYA: Health director-general Tan Sri Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has welcomed the suggestion for Covid-19 survivors to form an official support group and is willing to guide them and provide advice if necessary.
He said it will be good for the Covid-19 survivors to come together to share their experiences in fighting the virus and how they overcame their mental exhaustion.
“I think it’s good for them if they can come together to lead and share their experiences in terms of how they got through it, the treatments they had gone through, their mental exhaustion while dealing with stigmatisation from the public about being diagnosed with Covid-19,” he said in his daily live telecast press conference via Facebook.
A support line that has been established by the Mental Health and Psycho-social Support (MHPSS) has received 36,269 calls and 50% of them were related to emotional support and counseling needs.
Dr Noor Hisham said the emotional support is related to feelings of stress, worry, anger and depression.
“Among the reasons they make the calls include dealing with job loss, lack of income, relationship problems, negative perceptions of people around, worry about infection and workplace problems,“ he said.
Dr Noor Hisham said 14.7% of calls made were to get information regarding the Covid-19, 8.8% on domestic issues or domestic violence, 6.8% to get financial assistance, 3.3% made complaints, 2.2% about psychiatric problems and 1.1% about health issues.
“Those who need emotional support and psychological assistance may contact 088 338088,“ he said.
“The MOH also provides counseling services to frontliners to identify those who are beginning to experience mental fatigue and help on mental health aspects.”
