KABUL (SW): Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) officials have said more than half of Afghanistan's population has psychological problems, 67 per cent of the total population, to be exact.
Fida Mohammad Paykan, the deputy ministry at the MoPH, in at the opening ceremony of a psychological ward for women and children at the Mental Health Hospital said that the main causes of these problems are war, insecurity, poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, and drug addiction.
The deputy minister added that the people who have psychological problems are due to direct vulnerability, such as women.
Ahmad Khitab Kakar, the head of the mental health hospital, told Salam Watandar, the lack of awareness of common mental illnesses, such as problems caused by worries and severe disorders such as insanity, depression and anxiety, feeling of shame and guilt of having a mental disorder and lack of services, have caused these disorders to become problems.
“Wars and conflicts have seriously damaged the people of the country”, informed Kakar.
According to him, the program will continue for another year supported by the World Bank with 2.6 million dollars fund. He wished that the number of doctors in mental health, nurses, counselors, clinical psychologists and social workers should be increased.
According to the Ministry of Public Health statistics, there are 1900 psychotherapy centers in the country, out of which 300 psychiatric centers prescribe psychiatric drugs to patients.
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