PETALING JAYA: Mental health services such as counselling and therapy for patients have been disrupted during the conditional movement control order (CMCO) period in the Klang Valley, according to healthcare providers.
The CMCO for Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya began on Oct 14 and will be extended for another 14 days until Nov 9.
Speaking to FMT, Dr Alvin Tan, director of People Psychological Solutions (PEOPLE), a psychological healthcare provider, said the short-notice directives provided regarding SOPs for businesses, alongside anxiety over increasing Covid-19 cases, had caused fewer patients to seek treatment.
“Despite clients requiring the services, the difficulty to physically be present at the premises is the main challenge to those seeking psychological help.
“Our sessions have been reduced by as much as 70% since the CMCO. Our team is also unsure as to whether or not we are able to provide sessions due to changing announcements on work SOPs, and we have been putting communications with our clients on hold regarding the status of their sessions,” he said.
Tan said many patients had opted to postpone their treatment until after the CMCO was lifted or when Covid-19 cases began to subside.
“Although the alternative of online counselling or teleconsultation is provided, most clients are opting for a ‘wait and see’ approach.
“Some have also cited a lack of privacy in the home environment or difficulty in conveying their issues and emotions effectively via online video calls as reasons to decline online counselling options.”
However, he said, in the event the CMCO became the norm, patients might have to resort for online-based services.
Mental Health Association (MMHA) president Dr Andrew Mohanraj also said many patients were not comfortable with online therapy.
He said although they were seeing about 70 new cases a week compared with 50 cases before the CMCO, the number would actually be more if not for the fact that potential clients were not comfortable with online therapy and wanted the conventional face to face therapy.
Mohanraj said the main complaints of patients who came during the CMCO were anxiety and depression related to financial problems, marital issues and family problems.
Tan said while the prevalence of mental health issues cut across all income brackets, environmental stressors such as economic difficulty among the lower socioeconomic status groups would impact mental health more severely, which would lead to a higher prevalence of mental health issues in such income groups.
“This is in line with what is found from the National Health Morbidity Survey in 2015,” he said.
He also pointed out that mental health services were not easily accessible.
“This is because such services are mainly concentrated in the Klang Valley region. The number of mental health professionals in Malaysia, such as psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, also does not meet population requirements,” he added.
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