Early intervention can help reduce risk of depression for children

SHAH ALAM - It has been estimated that one in three children and teenagers seeking mental support from Mental Illness Awareness and Support Association (Miasa) experience critical depression with suicidal ideations.

Its president Anita Abu Bakar said this happened because their parents did not realise the issues faced by their kids until it had escalated for the worse.

She said delay in getting mental support needed may affect the rehabilitation process by experts.

“This is because the child or teen is at a level where they have given up or trapped (with depression) during the rehabilitation process,” she said.

She said this during an interview with Sinar Harian after participating in a forum titled “Depression, is it a trend?” organised by Seven Skies International School on Sunday (May 29).

Also present were International Islamic University clinical psychologist Khairiah Abdul Razak and Seven Skies’ Head of Islamic Studies and Discipline Ahmad Kamaldeen.

Commenting further, Anita said early intervention, should they have known or noticed the symptoms, could have prevented the patients from reaching critical levels.

“A mere ‘How are you?’ could have triggered the child to tell them their true feelings and things could have turned out differently by following basic prevention methods,” she said.

Anita said among symptoms parents should be looking out for were self-isolation, refusing to go to school, lose interest in things they like, difficulty to focus, change in sleeping and eating patterns as well as frequently falling ill.

Parents or guardians, she said, needed to get immediate assistance and support from mental help professionals if they find their child have at least five of these symptoms continously for two weeks.

The National Health and Morbidity 2019 survey reported that 424,000 children in Malaysia suffer from mental health issues.