PETALING JAYA: A mental health expert has referred to as for nearer collaboration between the federal government and personal sector specialists to deal with the nation’s huge drug dependancy downside.
Andrew Mohanraj, president of the Malaysian Mental Health Association, stated the general public sector was suffering from a scarcity of specialist manpower, akin to psychiatrists, de-addiction specialists, counsellors, and psychologists.
“However, there are organisations within the non-public sector that may probably fulfill this demand. Consequently, a mechanism needs to be established to facilitate nearer collaboration between the nationwide anti-drugs company and the non-public sector,” he stated.
Mohanraj, a marketing consultant psychiatrist, stated the nationwide company’s present system, of counting on addicts to practise abstinence, missed the psychological parts linked to dependancy.
Abstinence dealt primarily with eliminating the physique’s bodily want for medicine over time, however dependancy couldn’t be merely reversed through abstinence as dependancy stemmed from complicated causes akin to previous trauma, character traits, peer stress, and present psychiatric circumstances.
“People have a tendency to make use of medicine as a coping technique,” he stated. Ignoring the psychological points of drug abuse might result in the next likelihood of relapse amongst addicts.
Mohanraj was commenting on a authorities proposal to evaluate felony penalties for drug offenders in favour of therapy or rehabilitation.
A lawyer, Tharamjit Singh, stated that rehabilitation centres needs to be critically assessed earlier than the federal government implements its plan.
“There’s no level in sending them to rehabilitation centres if they’re simply going to make use of medicine once more as soon as they’re launched,” he stated.
The authorities should look at the info from the prevailing rehabilitation centres, which incorporates success charges, the operational tips, the inspection protocols, and the way they monitor the restoration of people.
Tharamjit additionally instructed Malaysia emulate Australia in terms of reforming such centres.
“In Australia, it is called “Correctional Centres,” which perform extra like rehabilitation services. This mannequin integrates counselling and psychological interventions, making certain a extra holistic method to rehabilitation.”
