Perak saw 9,772 cases of mental illness, 80 suicides since pandemic began, says exco

[superadmin]

IPOH, Aug 27 — A total of 9,772 people suffered mental disturbances in Perak throughout the Covid-19 pandemic from January 2020 to June 2021, the State Legislative Assembly was told today.

State Women and Family Development, Welfare, Community Well-being and NGO Committee chairman Datuk Dr Wan Norashikin Wan Noordin said 5,213 mental illness cases were registered from January to December last year while 4,559 cases were registered from January to June this year.

“According to statistics released by the police, the number of suicides in Perak since the Movement Control Order was implemented from March 2020 to July 2021 is 80 people,” she said.

Depression was cited as the top contributing factor for suicides, based on data from 33 cases, she said.

However, Dr Wan Norashikin said that in 24 cases, the reasons for suicide were unknown.

Other contributing reasons that could be pinned down were financial problems (13), illness (four), drugs (three) and mental problems (also three).

“If broken down by ethnic composition, the Chinese have the highest suicide cases at 32; followed by Indians at 29 cases; others, 11 cases; and Malays eight cases,” she said.

She added that suicides were more prevalent among men (66) than women (14).

Dr Wan Norashikin was responding to Changkat Jong assemblyman Datuk Mohd Azhar Jamauddin who asked for the statistics on mental disturbances and suicide cases since the Covid-19 outbreak started in Malaysia.


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