Dialogue – Mona Zidan:
Posted on: Saturday 3 December 2022 – 10:40pm | Last Updated: Saturday 3 December 2022 – 10.40pm
• Most addicts have psychological symptoms and any changes in the person’s daily mood require psychological counseling
Alcohol and cannabis cause Alzheimer’s and depression… and ‘strox’ leads to epilepsy, schizophrenia and affective disorder
Social networking sites adversely affected the mental health of adolescents and young adults during the “pandemic” years.
Menen Abdel Maksoud, director of the General Secretariat for Mental Health at the Ministry of Health and Population, revealed that Egypt is in the process of joining developed countries in providing opioid substitution treatment services to help recover from addiction , noting that there is a relationship between addiction and mental illness, emphasizing the state’s concern for mental health, particularly with children in schools.
Abdel Maksoud said in an interview with Al-Shorouk that there is a new initiative that includes all aspects of mental health, whether it is public health, patients with addictions or patients with autism, as specialized centers have been prepared for the patients … and to the text of the interview:
< فى البداية.. ما عدد مستشفيات الصحة النفسية على مستوى الجمهورية؟
So far, we have nationwide 23 hospitals affiliated to the General Secretariat for Mental Health, in 16 governorates, including one hospital technically supervised only by the Secretariat, and all hospitals provide their services free of charge.
< ما الأمراض التى تغطيها مستشفيات الصحة النفسية؟
Mental health hospitals treat addiction and problems of children, adolescents, the elderly and women, as the services of the secretariat cover all ages and sex segments of the Egyptian people, and there are addiction treatment programs and Egypt is in about to join developed countries in providing an opioid substitution treatment service, to help patients who have difficulty in getting rid of addiction Where we use modern alternatives to get rid of addiction.
< هل الإدمان فى حد ذاته يسبب المرض النفسى؟
Addiction causes mental illness, for example, alcohol and cannabis addiction causes Alzheimer’s disease, depression and synthetic drugs such as astrox and other pills cause epilepsy, problems with consciousness, schizophrenia and emotional disturbances.
< متى يحتاج الشخص إلى العلاج النفسى؟
Anyone with long-term changes needs counseling, and we provide remote counseling, instead of the person attending the hospital themselves, although the service in hospitals is free, to encourage citizens to communicate with psychological treatment services, such as Provide the service by calling (16328) or accessing the mental health electronic platform and requesting a treatment session via video, and via the video functionality an appointment is made to meet a doctor.
Most addicted patients have accompanying psychological symptoms, as many psychiatric patients, unaware of their mental illness, resort to taking certain drugs through the appointment of friends or relatives, or through the pharmacist, to overcome this disease, which occurs call self-treatment. is not under the supervision of a doctor Substance abuse occurs and these people often seem to have certain problems in their lives.
< متى يجب على الأهل التدخل لمساعدة أبنائهم أو إخوانهم نفسيا؟
Parents should note the changes that occur in their children, in case there is a change in the character of the person from the warning signs of mental illness, and this change in the speed with which he eats or sleeps, or its mixing with surrounding people and the lack of his ability to study if he is a student, or the inability to study Focus when there is work.
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There is a law that regulates this matter, which is the Psychiatric Patient Care Law n. patient has become a danger to himself and to others.
< هل هناك زيادة فى الوعى مؤخرا بالمرض النفسى والحرص على علاجه؟
Yes, there is a clear desire on the part of recent citizens to learn about their mental illnesses, especially in the category of young people eager to aspire to know and understand themselves, unlike citizens who in past years considered mental illness a stigma for its owner.
< ما الأسباب التى أدت إلى تغير سلوك Resources ناحية المرض النفسى؟
The change in citizens’ behavior in terms of understanding and acceptance of mental illness in the last period has been the result of awareness campaigns launched by the State for mental health, as well as bringing services closer to citizens.
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Yes, it has had a great impact on these groups, especially during the years of the spread of the Corona pandemic, as many citizens have resorted to communicating through written conversations on applications on the phone and using symbols to express feelings, or isolation and estrangement from family and to be satisfied with mobile phones and laptops, and from here came the idea of the electronic platform to reach these groups of citizens, and we monitored the onset of symptoms such as anxiety and stress.
< من الأكثر توصلا للحصول على خدمات الصحة النفسية, ، الرجال أم النساء؟
As regards the use of treatment through the electronic platform, women are more in contact with requests for treatment and psychological advice.
< كيف يتم تحديد نسب الأمراض النفسية فى المجتمع؟
The General Secretariat of Mental Health is preparing for field research on mental illness rates, through research groups visiting homes to find out about the mental illnesses they face, and we are asking citizens to collaborate with research groups in this matter.
< ما هى المبادرات الجديدة فى مجال الصحة النفسية؟
We are currently preparing for a new initiative that includes all aspects of mental health, be it public health, addiction patients or autism patients, as specialized patient centers have been prepared and this initiative is divided into 4 sections; The research axis through research on mental illness, the addiction map to know the addiction rates, the media axis to educate citizens about mental health and the services axis.
< كيف تعاملتم مع المشاكل النفسية فى المدارس؟
We contacted the Ministry of Education more than once to adopt projects related to mental health in schools, and there was not enough response, so we coordinated with a British university and founded “School Mental Health” since 2017 , to educate all school workers , including teachers, administrators and workers, To detect mental illness and treat it or refer it to one of the centers affiliated with the program.
< كم عدد المراكز التى تطبق هذا البرنامج وفى أى محافظات؟
We currently have 5 centers in just 5 governorates namely Cairo with a center in Obour, Minya with a center in Mallawi, and in the governorates of Port Said and Aswan, and in Alexandria I started working differently in the faculties from which teachers graduate to train them in an earlier way to monitor the disease.
< كيف أثرت ظاهرة التنمر على الصحة النفسية خاصة للأطفال؟
The phenomenon of bullying is rapidly increasing, not only in Egypt but all over the world, and we try to convince parents and children at school that the bully is the mentally ill and not vice versa, because the bullied child is often subjected to violence that leads to this behavior.
< ما هى أكثر الأمراض النفسية التى يتم رصدها فى المدارس؟
Hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder are among the most common phenomena in schools, together with anxiety and depression which have recently appeared in children.
