A new mental health strategy will bring Dubai more in line with international standards, said a leading psychiatrist from Dubai Health Authority (DHA) on the opening day of Dubai Health Forum at Dubai World Trade Centre on Monday. Daily headlines from the UAE and around the world brought to you by Gulf News. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/videos
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00:00So, the Mental Health Policy, as mentioned, has been approved, it's there, it was a fantastic
00:08piece of work by the Ministry of Health, and they sought our consultation, and it's published.
00:16So the Mental Health Policy for the UAE is there and available.
00:21The Mental Health Act has been written, it's been reviewed, but it's now out of our hands
00:29in DHA, it's moved on to the legislators, so it will be for them to approve it, inshallah.
00:36In terms of the early intervention, early intervention can have two meanings, as Farah
00:41explained.
00:43On the one hand, early intervention meaning detecting the mental illness early before
00:48people become too unwell, it's easier to treat.
00:52But there's also early intervention from a developmental perspective.
00:57I'm a child psychiatrist, so I'm particularly passionate in development and those early
01:01years, and it really is the time to intervene.
01:06If we can set a secure base for infants and children in the first five years of their
01:10life, the sort of benefits will be long-lasting.
01:16We know that children who have a secure attachment, that have had a solid basis, these children
01:22later, 20, 25 years later, are more likely to be in work, to be married, to have families,
01:27to be less likely to suffer from mental health illnesses, less likely to be using drugs or
01:34other substances.
01:36So it's really the time to invest.
01:39So that's something that Dr. Azhar in Latifa Hospital will be spearheading, the infant
01:43mental health.
01:45With babies and young children, sometimes the presentations can be a little bit, you
01:53know, they're not so straightforward.
01:55The baby doesn't come to you saying, I'm feeling depressed or anxious.
01:59But babies and children come as part of a system, whether some kind of carer or family.
02:04So you want to really take a bit more of a holistic or systemic approach.
02:09So you'd be doing a bit of detective work to find out, you know, even simple things
02:12like, is the baby sleeping, eating, engaging, smiling, you know.
02:18And you can start, are they developing, are they meeting their normal milestones, are
02:23they doing the things they should be doing during those first five years.
02:27And so that's with the little ones.
02:31And actually, as you sort of gain an eye, I suppose, in a way, and that's where the
02:35mental health training comes in, more people will be able to pick up in terms of, OK, these
02:39babies look happy and they're developing normally, but these are the ones that we need to maybe
02:44have a think about what we can be doing to support them and the carers around them.
02:48You know, those early years can be very stressful for families, you know, looking after a baby.
02:55I think there's a saying that each baby needs four, sort of needs a village to bring it up.
03:01Yeah, there's a saying like that.
03:02And I think now we're living in a time where those family structures are not the same,
03:07especially I think it's a challenge in Dubai.
03:09You have a lot of expat families that, you know, it's a working father, maybe a working
03:13mother and, you know, children, and they don't have much to support them.
03:20And I think that puts a lot of strain.
03:22So that's early intervention with the little ones.
03:26With the older children and adults, I mean, when does something become a mental illness?
03:32I mean, you know, we used as a definition in the strategy, we used the WHO definition,
03:38which is not just an absence of illness.
03:42It's when there's a sense of, you know, that you're not feeling satisfied with your life,
03:47that you're not feeling, you know, it's normal to get anxious, to get stressed, to have ups
03:52and downs.
03:53That's part of life.
03:54But when is it actually starting to really affect your sense of well-being?
03:59And then the most critical thing really for diagnosis is, is it impacting your function?
04:03Is it impacting on the relationships with people around you?
04:06Is it affecting your job and your ability to perform?
04:09That's when you start to say, okay, this is the point that we need to take some action.
04:13So at this very moment, we're in the final stages, inshallah, we'll get the approval
04:19for two key training programs.
04:21The first one is for infant mental health, which will be about training up staff throughout
04:26the private and public sector in detecting sort of in knowing what infant mental health
04:33is so that they can detect problems early.
04:36And then a second training program, which is a WHO program to train up primary health
04:43care workers.
04:44So people in the community, and they could be, again, private or public sector, it would
04:49be open to all primary health care workers, community, family physicians, nurses, to help
04:55them detect.
04:56And even more excitingly, even to also manage some of the simple cases so that they can
05:01stay in the community and don't need the more costly, stigmatizing hospital care.