The National Commission for Mental Health and the Mental Health Association are lobbying for free medication to be given to people with chronic mental problems.

They are appealing to the government to offer free medicine for all mental illnesses, including depression, and not only for schizophrenia.

"Diabetics are provided with insulin and cancer patients get their treatments. But, for some reason, the government is stingy with mental health patients," said association chairman Connie Magro.

As the situation stood, those having other mental illnesses apart from schizophrenia had to be below a certain income bracket to benefit from free medication.

This often led to patients using the wrong diagnosis to acquire the free medication. But not everyone wanted to be labelled with a condition they did not have, Ms Magro continued.

Patients were often compelled to stop taking their medication - one of the major obstacles to treating mental illness - because they could not afford it.

The issue of the quality of the medicine provided was also raised. The latest medication, with the least side effects and offering a better quality of life, was given for schizophrenia, but other illnesses did not benefit from the most up-to-date treatment.

Ms Magro stressed the importance of investing in mental health patients, which meant they would be able to return to work. After all, the loss of working days was related mostly to mental illness, she said.

She appealed for cooperation from the Employment and Training Corporation and for tolerance towards those experiencing mental illness at the place of work. They should not be limited to working as cleaners, she said.

Ms Magro was addressing a seminar on Users' Perspectives on Mental Health Issues at the Corinthia Palace Hotel in Attard, organised by the commission, with the collaboration of the Health Promotion Department, on the occasion of World Mental Health Day last Sunday.

The aim of the seminar was to focus on those who experience mental illness to see how they wanted to be helped and what their priorities were and to be guided by their needs, the commission's executive secretary, Doris Gauci, said.

The problems facing mental health sufferers - particularly the stigma of the illness - were reiterated during the seminar in the hope that their voices would finally be heard.

Ms Gauci commented on the lack of local research on mental illness and the fact that foreign statistics had to be quoted.

Authorities should want to be able to evaluate and address the "burden" of mental illness on the country, she said.

The prevalence of suicide, for example, was unknown, apart from the fact that it was clearly on the rise. The last local study dates back to 10 years ago and is now outdated. No follow-up studies were ever carried out and no suicide prevention strategy put in place. Everything was kept quiet, Ms Gauci said.

Ms Magro lamented that Mount Carmel Hospital was the only choice for people with mental illnesses and that there was no alternative. The government rarely took an interest in these issues.

More services were required, both for patients and the relatives, she insisted.

"Where are the mentally ill and their families - who have the experience and the understanding - on the many boards set up to deal with mental health? They should not only be composed of university graduates," she maintained.

Quoting World Health Organisation statistics, Ms Magro said that, by 2020, the number of people in the world suffering from depression would have doubled.

Moreover, one in every five children under the age of 15 would experience a debilitating mental illness at some point in their lives, statistics showed.

One per cent of the population is schizophrenic; two per cent suffers from manic depression and 10 per cent experiences some type of neurosis, Ms Magro continued, stressing the need to raise awareness on mental illness to eradicate the stigma.

"Everyone knows someone suffering from a mental illness," she said.

Prof. Marie Therese Camilleri Podesta, chairman of the National Commission set up to advise the Health Ministry, said its budget this year was Lm30,000, but Lm20,000 was frozen halfway through in August, leaving it with no money and unable to continue with its plans to mark its 10th anniversary.

All their voluntary efforts to coordinate a programme of events on the occasion had gone down the drain, just when the red tape on how to use their budget was starting to be cut down, Prof. Camilleri Podesta said.

"The members of the commission would like to continue with their work. But, unfortunately, they do not know which direction they are taking. Apart from no budget, even their premises are now going to be used for another purpose and the commission cannot function on nothing.

"If the authorities have the good of mental health patients at heart, they should give the commission, which has worked hard and made progress, the opportunity to continue to do so."

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